--- title: Why your Claude Code history disappears url: https://onadit.com/docs/claude-code-history summary: Claude Code deletes a terminal session's transcript after 30 days without use, with no message, because cleanupPeriodDays defaults to 30. Set it higher in ~/.claude/settings.json to keep your history. last_updated: 2026-10-31 --- # Why your Claude Code history disappears Claude Code deletes a terminal session's transcript after 30 days without use, with no message, because cleanupPeriodDays defaults to 30. Set it higher in ~/.claude/settings.json to keep your history. Checked against Claude Code's documentation on 31 October 2026. ## Where Claude Code stores conversation history Claude Code writes each session to a plain JSONL file on your Mac: ```text ~/.claude/projects//.jsonl ``` `` is the full path of the folder you started Claude Code in, with every character that is not a letter or a digit replaced by `-`. A session started in `/Users/you/code/app` is in `~/.claude/projects/-Users-you-code-app/`. The file holds your messages, Claude's replies, tool calls and tool results. Subagent transcripts and large tool outputs sit in a folder named after the session, next to it. If you set `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR`, all of this lives under that folder instead of `~/.claude`. ## What deletes it After a session starts, Claude Code runs a background sweep. It deletes transcripts older than `cleanupPeriodDays`, which defaults to 30 days. It shows no message. A session you have not used for longer than that is gone from the `/resume` picker, and its file is gone from the disk. The sweep also removes that session's subagent transcripts and tool outputs. What the sweep leaves alone: - Sessions you started or last continued in Claude Desktop or Cowork, kept at any age from v2.1.248. Earlier versions delete them on the 30-day rule, and Claude Code's docs list a few setups where that rule still applies. `desktopSessionCleanupPeriodDays` adds an age limit, and a transcript goes only once it is older than both numbers - Auto memory, the notes Claude keeps in `~/.claude/projects//memory/` ## Keep transcripts longer Add the setting to your user settings file: ```json ~/.claude/settings.json { "cleanupPeriodDays": 3650 } ``` - The value is a whole number of days, at least 1 - `0` fails validation, so pick a large number such as 3650 for long retention - If your organization sets `cleanupPeriodDays` in managed settings, its value wins over yours - If the file cannot be parsed, or `cleanupPeriodDays` fails validation (`0` does), Claude Code pauses the sweep and shows a warning in `/status` To check that it holds, list the transcripts older than 30 days after your next session has started. With the default they would be gone: ```sh find ~/.claude/projects -name '*.jsonl' -mtime +30 | head ``` A transcript that was already deleted does not come back with this setting. A copy may still be in Time Machine or another backup. ## How to see your Claude Code chat history Before you assume a session was deleted, check that its file still exists: ```sh ls ~/.claude/projects/*/.jsonl # a session, by its ID ls -lt ~/.claude/projects/*/*.jsonl | tail -5 # the 5 oldest transcripts left ``` If the file is there, the picker may simply not list it. `/resume` shows the sessions of the current worktree, and sessions that added this folder with `/add-dir`. In the picker, `Ctrl+W` widens the list to every worktree of the repository and `Ctrl+A` to every project on this Mac. `claude --resume ` works from any folder. ## Search it from your other agents with Onadit Raising `cleanupPeriodDays` keeps the files, 1 folder per project. It does not make them searchable, and Codex or Cursor cannot read them. Onadit is a Mac app that keeps a copy of your sessions in its own archive, where the agents you connect can search them over MCP. Its Capture feature does the copying. - Every hour, Capture reads new and changed sessions in `~/.claude/projects/`. It never changes those files - Claude Code or Codex, signed in with your own account, judges each session: worth keeping, unsure, or trivial. These calls count against your plan with that provider - A session worth keeping is saved with its full transcript, a summary and its project folder, in `~/Library/Application Support/Rift/`, which Claude Code's sweep does not touch - Nothing in Onadit deletes saved sessions on a schedule. They stay until you remove them - Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and the Claude desktop app can search the archive, see [Give Claude Code and Codex the same memory](https://onadit.com/docs/claude-code-codex-memory.md) Its limits: - Capture is off until you turn it on, and it needs Search by meaning - It starts on the day you turn it on. Sessions already on your Mac are not imported, unless you resume one later. So raise `cleanupPeriodDays` as well - A trivial session is not stored, and one the judge is unsure about waits in the [review queue](https://onadit.com/docs/capture.md#the-review-queue) - Session text is sent to the provider of the tool that judges it, and to an embedding service for Search by meaning. [What leaves your Mac](https://onadit.com/docs/egress.md) lists every call - Onadit is free for 7 days, then €5 a month until 31 December 2026 and €9 a month after, VAT excluded. Without a license, capture and Search by meaning pause, and your archive and keyword search stay. See [Your free week and your license](https://onadit.com/docs/license.md) - It needs a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later ## Turn on Capture In Onadit.app, open Privacy and click Search by Meaning, then open Capture and click Turn On. From the command line, once Search by meaning is on: ```sh ~/.rift/bin/onadit onboard --enable-capture ~/.rift/bin/onadit capture # run once now instead of waiting for the hour ``` A package install does not put `onadit` on your `PATH`, hence the full path. [Capture](https://onadit.com/docs/capture.md) covers what it reads, how a session is judged and what is stored.