Inquiry Regarding Chat Storage and Evaluation in Gemini CLI

[Gaetner84]

I've been using the Gemini CLI for a few hours now, and I must say — I'm genuinely impressed by how well everything is working so far. I'm running it inside a Docker environment, integrated with tools from the security domain, and I'm currently building custom Markdown files to extend the system for my own specific use cases.

That said, here’s the core of my question:

I noticed that it's possible to save a conversation using the /chat save filename command. That’s a great feature — but it raises the question: who is this feature really for, and how can the saved content be accessed and reused effectively?

Personally, I prefer to evaluate and analyze my sessions afterwards — using my own toolsets and various AI systems hosted on my servers. Especially when it comes to longer sessions focused on optimization or identifying errors in system behavior, having access to the entire conversation is crucial. It allows me to refine and adapt my Markdown templates and YAML definitions with precision.

So here’s the big question:

In what format and at which exact location does Gemini CLI store the saved chat when using /chat save filename?
Is there an API endpoint or at least a machine-readable format I can work with for automated parsing and integration into my own workflows?

I would greatly appreciate a clear technical answer on this — it would enable me to better align Gemini CLI with my custom development pipeline and make the most out of its capabilities.

Thanks in advance!

[bl-ue]

My PR #4401 implements automatic chat saving with a lot of detailed information—thoughts, timestamps, model info, etc.

[Gaetner84]

Thanks for the PR reference, but this seems to miss the point of the original question.

I'm not asking whether Gemini can save chat sessions or whether PR #4401 adds more metadata — I'm asking where and how chats are actually stored right now, when using /chat save or just running sessions under the CLI.

After inspecting the actual file structure in a running environment, here's what's really happening:

🔹 Chats are written into hashed session folders under:
~/.gemini/tmp//logs.json

🔹 The files are not clearly labeled by filename (despite /chat save filename), and there's no index, no unified access layer, and no standard output format.

🔹 So unless your PR changes the default behavior of the CLI in stable releases (not nightly), it’s unrelated to what was asked.

If you do have actual working code that lets users control where and how chats are saved, with custom filenames and formats (Markdown/YAML/JSON), feel free to point to that exact commit or command.

Otherwise, citing a PR without answering the operational reality is just white noise.

[Manamama]

See #3965 for both a technical answer (where and how it is stored) and some code (of mine) about it. The best is to ask Gemini ♊ herself, having got cloned this very repo.

[Gaetner84]

I did check #3965 — and while it contains some general insights and example code, it doesn't actually answer the core of my question:

🔍 Where exactly does /chat save filename persist the session, and in what usable format can it be accessed externally (e.g., for post-processing via tools, automation, etc.)?

Here's the actual result, just to clarify what’s missing from your suggestion:
The CLI stores chat logs in hashed session folders like:

~/.gemini/tmp/4ebf39d8665452a73d0abdd7819b076253edbc27dce22d93f0e25ebf0862a44f/logs.json

No reference to the “filename” provided via /chat save, no flat archive, no centralized structure.

Telling users to “ask Gemini herself” is cute — but it's not helpful when the goal is to integrate the tool into a real DevOps/AI workflow. Either the tool exposes this in a reproducible format, or it doesn’t.

If you do have working code to map saved chats to meaningful file names or expose them via CLI/API, I’d welcome that. Otherwise, #3965 is a tangent, not a solution.

[bdmorgan]

Here's how the chat history is saved:

• Format: The chat history is saved in a machine-readable JSON format.
• Location: The files are stored in a project-specific temporary directory. The exact path is determined by the getProjectTempDir() method in the configuration.
• File Naming: The files are named using the pattern checkpoint-.json, where is the name you provide to the /chat save command.

The JSON file contains an array of objects, where each object represents a message in the conversation history. Each message object has a role (user or model) and parts (the content of the message).

Since the output is structured JSON, you can easily parse it for your own workflows. There is no specific API endpoint for this, but you can directly access the JSON files from the file system.

[Gaetner84]

Thanks a lot, @bdmorgan — that’s exactly what I needed to know.

✔️ Just to confirm:

• Saved chats via /chat save <name> are stored as checkpoint-<name>.json
• In the project-specific temp directory (via getProjectTempDir())
• Format: JSON, with role and parts[] structure
• Direct file system access, no CLI listing (yet)

Perfect for custom tooling and analysis — appreciate the clear answer!

[Manamama]

Correct #4974 (comment). Re: "Where exactly does /chat save filename persist the session" - my Readme https://github.com/Manamama/Puzzles_for_AIs/tree/main/code/Gemini%20CLI%20logs%20prettifier says it verbatim, q.v. :

Gemini CLI https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli stores chat sessions (checkpoints files) created by /chat save as raw JSON files under ~/.gemini/tmp. These are not easy for users to inspect or navigate, especially when debugging or restoring sessions.

assuming the default config. The rest of the Readme plus the program itself actually parse these JSONs (which are pretty standard anyhow).

You can even have Gemini ingest these "verbatim" - I often do so when the session is beyond broken or non-restorable, see e.g. #5006 (comment) for a very recent case where I needed to do just that. (ln -s is the master trick for that, once again).

[Gaetner84]

Thanks @Manamama — your repo makes more sense to me now that I understand the difference between runtime logs and saved checkpoints. Might be worth clarifying that in your README for others who get confused where /chat save writes its data.

[nekennick]

i can't find the /chat save list that i saved in the previous session, even though i checked manually it exists in /.gemini/tmp/
help me, thanks

[Manamama]

i can't find the /chat save list that i saved in the previous session, even though i checked manually it exists in /.gemini/tmp/ help me, thanks

I sense you @nekennick are mistaking /chat save list for: /chat list or /chat save {name} . See also: /chat resume {name} itself.

The Help helps.