claude-code-transcripts

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

Generated transcript pages include a left sidebar with persistent filters (user/assistant/thinking/tool calls/results) and an outline for navigation.

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 and Codex CLI session files into browseable multi-page HTML transcripts.

Supported formats:

• Claude Code session files (JSONL format from ~/.claude/projects)
• Codex CLI session files (JSONL format from ~/.codex/sessions) - automatically detected and converted
• Cursor chat exports (JSON) - automatically detected when passed to the json command
• VS Code-based IDE chat exports in JSON ("Chat: Export Chat") and Markdown/text formats (Cursor/Windsurf/Augment)
• Windsurf chat exports (JSON) - best-effort import
• Antigravity transcript exports (JSON) - best-effort import
• Kiro /save exports (JSON) - best-effort import

Rendered blocks:

• Claude Code thinking blocks (when present) are shown in the HTML output
• Codex CLI reasoning entries (when present) are normalized to thinking and shown

There are four commands available:

• local (default) - select from local sessions (Claude Code from ~/.claude/projects and Codex CLI from ~/.codex/sessions)
• 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 with sessions from both Claude Code and Codex CLI, clearly labeled by source. Select any session to generate HTML and open it in your 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 from git push output if not specified)
• --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

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

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.

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