Claude Chat Export Browser

Export your Claude Desktop chats to Markdown and JSON

A simple terminal tool that helps you browse and export conversations from your Claude AI assistant data exports. Get your chat history in both human-readable Markdown and structured JSON formats.

Quick Start

1. Go to your Claude account settings and export your data.
2. Once you receive the email, download the zip file.
3. Unzip the file and place the extracted folder in the same directory as this tool.
4. Run the tool with ./claude_chat_browser.py
5. Browse your conversations with arrow keys
6. Press Enter to select a conversation
7. Press Y to export to Markdown and JSON.

What You Can Do

• Browse All Conversations: Newest conversations appear first
• See Previews: View the first few messages before exporting
• Export Easily: Get both Markdown and JSON versions of any conversation
• Read Chronologically: Exported conversations are organized by time with timestamps
• No Extra Software Needed: Uses only standard Python libraries

How to Use

Step 1: Get Your Claude Data

1. In Claude Desktop app, go to Settings → Export Data
2. Download and extract the ZIP file
3. Place the extracted folder (a data-... folder containing conversations.json) in the same directory as this tool

Step 2: Run the Browser

# Make executable (first time only)
chmod +x claude_chat_browser.py

# Start the browser
./claude_chat_browser.py

Step 3: Navigate and Export

• Navigate: Use ↑/↓ arrows to select conversations
• Change Pages: Use ←/→ arrows to move between pages (10 conversations per page)
• View Details: Press Enter to see conversation details
• Export: Press Y when prompted to save as Markdown and JSON
• Exit: Press Q to quit

What You Get

When you export a conversation, two files are created in the exports/ folder:

• [date]_[name].md: Easy-to-read Markdown with all messages in order
• [date]_[name].json: Complete structured data you can use in other tools

Tips

• The tool automatically finds the most recent Claude data export in your directory
• Exported conversations have timestamps so you can see when each message was sent
• Use the JSON exports if you want to process your conversations with other tools

For developer information, see docs/DEVELOPMENT.md.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.