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claude-code-transcripts

PyPI Changelog Tests License

Convert Claude Code session files (JSON or JSONL) to clean, mobile-friendly HTML pages with pagination.

Example transcript produced using this tool.

Read A new way to extract detailed transcripts from Claude Code for background on this project.

Installation

Install this tool using uv:

uv tool install claude-code-transcripts

Or run it without installing:

uvx claude-code-transcripts --help

Usage

This tool converts Claude Code session files into browseable multi-page HTML transcripts.

There are four commands available:

  • local (default) - select from local Claude Code sessions stored in ~/.claude/projects
  • web - select from web sessions via the Claude API
  • json - convert a specific JSON or JSONL session file
  • all - convert all local sessions to a browsable HTML archive

The quickest way to view a recent local session:

claude-code-transcripts

This shows an interactive picker to select a session, generates HTML, and opens it in your default browser.

Output options

All commands support these options:

  • -o, --output DIRECTORY - output directory (default: writes to temp dir and opens browser)
  • -a, --output-auto - auto-name output subdirectory based on session ID or filename
  • --repo OWNER/NAME - GitHub repo for commit links (auto-detected if not specified). For web command, also filters the session list.
  • --open - open the generated index.html in your default browser (default if no -o specified)
  • --gist - upload the generated HTML files to a GitHub Gist and output a preview URL
  • --json - include the original session file in the output directory
  • --output-mode - control how much detail is shown: full (default), compact, or conversation

The generated output includes:

  • index.html - an index page with a timeline of prompts and commits
  • page-001.html, page-002.html, etc. - paginated transcript pages

Local sessions

Local Claude Code sessions are stored as JSONL files in ~/.claude/projects. Run with no arguments to select from recent sessions:

claude-code-transcripts
# or explicitly:
claude-code-transcripts local

Use --limit to control how many sessions are shown (default: 10):

claude-code-transcripts local --limit 20

Web sessions

Import sessions directly from the Claude API:

# Interactive session picker
claude-code-transcripts web

# Import a specific session by ID
claude-code-transcripts web SESSION_ID

# Import and publish to gist
claude-code-transcripts web SESSION_ID --gist

The session picker displays sessions grouped by their associated GitHub repository:

simonw/datasette              2025-01-15T10:30:00  Fix the bug in query parser
simonw/llm                    2025-01-14T09:00:00  Add streaming support
(no repo)                     2025-01-13T14:22:00  General coding session

Use --repo to filter the session list to a specific repository:

claude-code-transcripts web --repo simonw/datasette

On macOS, API credentials are automatically retrieved from your keychain (requires being logged into Claude Code). On other platforms, provide --token and --org-uuid manually.

Publishing to GitHub Gist

Use the --gist option to automatically upload your transcript to a GitHub Gist and get a shareable preview URL:

claude-code-transcripts --gist
claude-code-transcripts web --gist
claude-code-transcripts json session.json --gist

This will output something like:

Gist: https://gist.github.com/username/abc123def456
Preview: https://gisthost.github.io/?abc123def456/index.html
Files: /var/folders/.../session-id

The preview URL uses gisthost.github.io to render your HTML gist. The tool automatically injects JavaScript to fix relative links when served through gisthost.

Combine with -o to keep a local copy:

claude-code-transcripts json session.json -o ./my-transcript --gist

Requirements: The --gist option requires the GitHub CLI (gh) to be installed and authenticated (gh auth login).

Auto-naming output directories

Use -a/--output-auto to automatically create a subdirectory named after the session:

# Creates ./session_ABC123/ subdirectory
claude-code-transcripts web SESSION_ABC123 -a

# Creates ./transcripts/session_ABC123/ subdirectory
claude-code-transcripts web SESSION_ABC123 -o ./transcripts -a

Including the source file

Use the --json option to include the original session file in the output directory:

claude-code-transcripts json session.json -o ./my-transcript --json

This will output:

JSON: ./my-transcript/session_ABC.json (245.3 KB)

This is useful for archiving the source data alongside the HTML output.

Filtering output

Use --output-mode to control how much detail is included in the generated HTML:

# Show everything (default)
claude-code-transcripts json session.json --output-mode full

# Hide tool results but keep tool call headers (useful for hiding sensitive output)
claude-code-transcripts json session.json --output-mode compact

# Show only user prompts and assistant text (no tools, no thinking)
claude-code-transcripts json session.json --output-mode conversation

The three modes are:

Mode User text Assistant text Tool calls Tool results Thinking
full Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
compact Yes Yes Yes No Yes
conversation Yes Yes No No No

compact mode is useful when tool results might contain sensitive information (environment variables, file contents, etc.) but you still want to see what tools were invoked. conversation mode gives a clean "what did we discuss?" view.

This option works with all commands (local, web, json, all).

Converting from JSON/JSONL files

Convert a specific session file directly:

claude-code-transcripts json session.json -o output-directory/
claude-code-transcripts json session.jsonl --open

This works with both JSONL files in the ~/.claude/projects/ folder and JSON session files extracted from Claude Code for web.

The json command can take a URL to a JSON or JSONL file as an alternative to a path on disk.

Converting all sessions

Convert all your local Claude Code sessions to a browsable HTML archive:

claude-code-transcripts all

This creates a directory structure with:

  • A master index listing all projects
  • Per-project pages listing sessions
  • Individual session transcripts

Options:

  • -s, --source DIRECTORY - source directory (default: ~/.claude/projects)
  • -o, --output DIRECTORY - output directory (default: ./claude-archive)
  • --include-agents - include agent session files (excluded by default)
  • --dry-run - show what would be converted without creating files
  • --open - open the generated archive in your default browser
  • -q, --quiet - suppress all output except errors

Examples:

# Preview what would be converted
claude-code-transcripts all --dry-run

# Convert all sessions and open in browser
claude-code-transcripts all --open

# Convert to a specific directory
claude-code-transcripts all -o ./my-archive

# Include agent sessions
claude-code-transcripts all --include-agents

Development

To contribute to this tool, first checkout the code. You can run the tests using uv run:

cd claude-code-transcripts
uv run pytest

And run your local development copy of the tool like this:

uv run claude-code-transcripts --help