How to use --session properly?

[failable]

I copied the config from here to try --session but got the below error. Is there anything I am missing here? Thanks!

maximin@mac:~/Downloads $ which kitty
/Applications/kitty.app/Contents/MacOS/kitty
maximin@mac:~/Downloads $ cat kitty.conf 
# Set the layout for the current tab
layout tall
# Set the working directory for windows in the current tab
cd ~
# Create a window and run the specified command in it
launch zsh
# Create a window with some environment variables set and run vim in it
launch --env FOO=BAR vim
# Set the title for the next window
launch --title "Chat with x" irssi --profile x
# Run a short lived command and see its output
launch --hold message-of-the-day

maximin@mac:~/Downloads $ kitty --session ./kitty.conf
[0.208] Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "lib/python3.12/kitty/main.py", line 531, in main
  File "lib/python3.12/kitty/main.py", line 523, in _main
  File "lib/python3.12/kitty/main.py", line 256, in __call__
  File "lib/python3.12/kitty/main.py", line 216, in _run_app
  File "lib/python3.12/kitty/session.py", line 257, in create_sessions
  File "lib/python3.12/kitty/session.py", line 221, in parse_session
ValueError: Unknown command in session file: shell

[kovidgoyal]

There is no shell command in the file you catted, so I dont see where that error could be coming from. First off dont name it kitty.conf, kitty.conf is the name of the kitty config file. Secondly make sure you are using up-to-date kitty, the example works fine with kitty version 0.39 and newer.

[failable]

The issue was I did not use absolute path for the session file, though the error is a bit confusing. Thanks for the hint!