Delete and remove Claude Code chat sessions with an interactive terminal UI.
Browse, select, and bulk delete chat histories stored in ~/.claude directory.
Tested with Claude Code v2.1.233.
Chats view
Project view
- Browse chat sessions across all projects, with optional grouped-by-project view
- Bulk delete with full on-disk cleanup (subagents, tool-results, file-history, tasks, background job state, security and telemetry leftovers, and more)
- Copy chat UUID to clipboard
- Keyboard-driven interface with vim keys and fast page navigation
- Auto-update via GitHub releases
Deleting a chat removes its full on-disk footprint, not just the transcript:
~/.claude/
├── projects/<project>/
│ ├── <uuid>.jsonl # main transcript
│ ├── <uuid>/ # subagents/ + tool-results/
│ └── sessions-index.json # entry removed (if the index exists)
├── tasks/<uuid>/ # task state
├── file-history/<uuid>/ # pre-edit file snapshots
├── session-env/<uuid>/ # session environment
├── debug/<uuid>.txt # debug log
├── security/security_warnings_state_<uuid>.* # security-hook dedupe state + lock
├── telemetry/*<uuid>*.json # failed telemetry events
└── jobs/<uuid-prefix>/ # background session state
For a background session that was forked from the chat being deleted, the copy
of the parent transcript it keeps (jobs/<fork>/tmp/parent-transcript.jsonl) is
removed too; the fork's own transcript is self-contained and stays usable.
Older Claude Code layouts are still cleaned up when present: todos/<uuid>-*.json,
plans/<slug>.md (only if no other chat uses the slug),
agents/<agent-id>/memory-local.md, and security_warnings_state_<uuid>.json in
the Claude directory root.
Project- and user-scoped state (projects/<project>/memory/,
agent-memory/<agent>/, memory-project.md, memory-user.md) is preserved. See
docs/deletion-behavior.md for the full breakdown and
the confirmation flow.
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ataleckij/claude-chats-delete/main/install.sh | bashThis will:
- Detect your platform (Linux/macOS, x64/ARM)
- Download the latest release binary
- Verify checksum (SHA256)
- Install to
~/.local/bin/claude-chats
Requirements: curl or wget (usually pre-installed on Linux/macOS)
See docs/install-from-source.md for manual build instructions (requires Go 1.21+).
claude-chatsSee docs/keyboard-shortcuts.md for the full keybinding reference and tips for large chat histories.
The tool checks for updates on startup (once per hour) and prompts you to install when a new version is available. Toggle auto-updates from the Settings tab (press →), or run claude-chats --update for a manual check / --version to see the current version.
To disable auto-updates without opening the TUI, set CLAUDE_CHATS_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1 in your environment.
On first run, you'll be prompted to specify your Claude directory. Configuration is saved to ~/.config/claude-chats/config.json.