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How to Delete Claude Code Session History

Clearing old sessions from your own disk — the supported command, and the files to leave alone.

Claude Code keeps a full transcript of every session on your machine, in plaintext. That is what makes --resume work, and it is also why people go looking for a way to clear it: a laptop being handed over, a repository that should not leave a trace, or simply years of accumulated JSONL nobody needs. There is a supported command for this, an automatic sweep you may already be relying on, and a short list of files you should not touch. Here is all three.

Different tool, different history. This page is about Claude Code, the CLI you run in a terminal. Deleting these files does nothing to the conversations in your claude.ai chat list, which live in your account rather than on your disk — for those, see how to delete all Claude chats.

What already gets deleted without you

Before deleting anything by hand, know that a sweep is running. Anthropic documents that files under the application-data paths “are deleted on startup once they’re older than cleanupPeriodDays,” and that the default is 30 days. That covers, among others:

Lowering cleanupPeriodDays in your settings is the least effort way to keep history short-lived; Anthropic lists it first among the ways to reduce exposure. The minimum is 1, and 0 fails with a validation error.

The gap worth knowing: ~/.claude/history.jsonl — “every prompt you’ve typed, with timestamp and project path” — sits in the “kept until you delete them” group and is not swept by age.

The one-command way: claude project purge

For a single project, Anthropic ships a purge command (documented as requiring Claude Code v2.1.124 or later). Per the Clear local data documentation it deletes transcripts and auto memory under projects/, the per-session tasks/, debug/ and file-history/ entries, the matching prompt lines in history.jsonl, and the project’s entry in ~/.claude.json.

Preview first — this changes nothing:

claude project purge ~/work/my-repo --dry-run

The plan lists each matching item and why it is included, then, without --dry-run, asks for a single confirmation before deleting. Useful variants:

Two things it deliberately leaves alone, and warns about in the plan output: shell-snapshots/ and backups/, because neither is project-scoped. backups/ can still contain the project’s entry in old .claude.json snapshots; at most five are kept and they rotate out.

Deleting by hand, and what it costs you

Anthropic states you can delete any of the application-data paths manually and that new sessions are unaffected. What you give up for past sessions:

Do not delete these. Anthropic is explicit: ~/.claude.json, ~/.claude/settings.json, and ~/.claude/plugins/ hold your auth, preferences, and installed plugins. Removing them logs you out and wipes your configuration; it does not make you more private.

Not writing the history in the first place

If the goal is that nothing hits the disk at all rather than cleaning up afterwards, Anthropic documents the switches for it:

The trade-off is exactly what you would expect: no transcript means nothing for --continue or --resume to reopen. See where Claude Code stores chat history for what those files buy you before you switch them off.

Local deletion is not server-side deletion

Worth being precise about, because the two are easy to conflate. Anthropic describes the on-disk copies as local caching: Claude Code clients “store session transcripts locally in plaintext under ~/.claude/projects/ for 30 days by default to enable session resumption.” Server-side retention is a separate matter, set by account type and data-use preference, and documented on Anthropic’s data usage page. Deleting a .jsonl file on your laptop does not reach into that; check the terms that apply to your own account rather than assuming.

If it was actually claude.ai you wanted to clean up

A lot of people arrive at this question from the browser side. That history is not on your disk: it lives in your claude.ai account, and claude.ai has a built-in multi-select — open Chats, tick conversations, click Delete Selected. What it does not have is a select-all, a filter to select by, or a way to leave a long run unattended, so a few hundred conversations still means a few hundred manual ticks.

Folders & Bulk Delete Chats for Claude is our Chrome extension that adds those missing parts on top of claude.ai — select all, filter by title, then delete in one paced, cancellable batch. It works only in the browser on claude.ai; it has nothing to do with the Claude Code CLI and does not touch anything in ~/.claude.

Add to Chrome — it’s free

Folders, pins, search, and single delete are free. Bulk delete is part of Pro ($19/year or $12 lifetime — launch price, regularly $39). Unofficial; not affiliated with Anthropic.

FAQ

Is there a command to delete Claude Code history?

Yes. claude project purge deletes the local state Claude Code holds for one project: transcripts and auto memory under projects/, the per-session tasks/, debug/ and file-history/ entries, the matching prompt lines in history.jsonl, and the project’s entry in ~/.claude.json. Anthropic documents it as requiring Claude Code v2.1.124 or later. It prints the full deletion plan and asks for confirmation before removing anything.

Does Claude Code delete old sessions on its own?

It does. Files under the documented application-data paths are deleted at startup once they are older than cleanupPeriodDays, and the default is 30 days. One notable exception: history.jsonl, the record of every prompt you have typed, is in the “kept until you delete them” group and persists indefinitely.

Is it safe to delete ~/.claude/projects/ manually?

Anthropic says you can delete any of the application-data paths by hand and that new sessions are unaffected. Deleting ~/.claude/projects/ costs you resume, continue, and rewind for past sessions, and it also removes auto memory. What you must not delete is ~/.claude.json, ~/.claude/settings.json, or ~/.claude/plugins/ — those hold your auth, preferences, and installed plugins.

Does deleting local files remove my data from Anthropic's servers?

No. The files under ~/.claude are described by Anthropic as local caching to enable session resumption; server-side retention is a separate policy that depends on your account type and data-use preference. Deleting a transcript on your disk does not reach back into that. Check Anthropic's data usage page and Privacy Center for the terms that apply to your account.

How do I stop Claude Code from writing transcripts at all?

Anthropic documents the CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_PROMPT_HISTORY environment variable to skip writing transcripts and prompt history in any mode. In non-interactive mode you can instead pass --no-session-persistence alongside -p, or set persistSession: false in the Agent SDK. The trade-off is real: without a transcript on disk there is nothing for --continue or --resume to reopen.

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