How do I save and restore my entire Vim session including open buffers, windows, and layout?

Explanation

:mksession saves a snapshot of the current Vim session — all open buffers, window splits, tab pages, cursor positions, and folds — to a file called Session.vim (or any name you specify). Later you can restore everything with vim -S Session.vim or :source Session.vim.

How it works

• :mksession — writes session to Session.vim in the current directory (fails if file already exists)
• :mksession! — overwrites an existing session file
• :mksession ~/.vim/sessions/project.vim — save to a custom path
• vim -S Session.vim — restore the session from the command line
• :source Session.vim — restore while already inside Vim

The session file is a plain Vim script that replays the buffer list, layout, and settings. You can inspect or edit it manually.

Example

Save before closing:

:mksession! ~/.vim/sessions/myproject.vim

Reopen later:

vim -S ~/.vim/sessions/myproject.vim

Or from inside Vim:

:source ~/.vim/sessions/myproject.vim

Tips

• The sessionoptions setting controls what gets saved. Common additions:

  :set sessionoptions+=globals,localoptions
  

• By default, sessionoptions includes blank,buffers,curdir,folds,help,tabpages,winsize,terminal
• To save sessions automatically on exit, add to your vimrc:

  autocmd VimLeave * mksession! ~/.vim/sessions/last.vim
  

• Pair with a directory-specific session by saving to the project root:

  :mksession! .session.vim
  

  Then open with vim -S .session.vim from that directory