Claude Code Exporter

Export your Claude Code session prompts to markdown files for documentation, analysis, and archival purposes.

🚀 Features

• Extract User Prompts: Automatically extracts all user prompts from Claude Code sessions
• Markdown Export: Generates clean, readable markdown files for each session
• Smart Filtering: Excludes system-generated messages and command outputs
• Flexible Path Detection: Automatically finds Claude sessions for your projects
• CLI & API: Use as a command-line tool or integrate into your Node.js applications
• Cross-Platform: Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows

📋 Table of Contents

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Usage
  • Command Line Interface
  • Programmatic API
• Output Format
• Examples
• Configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• License

🔧 Installation

Global Installation (Recommended)

npm install -g claude-code-exporter

Local Installation

npm install claude-code-exporter

Using npx (No Installation)

npx claude-code-exporter /path/to/project

🎯 Quick Start

Export prompts from your current project:

claude-prompts

Export prompts from a specific project:

claude-prompts /path/to/your/project

📖 Usage

Command Line Interface

claude-prompts [options] [project-path] [output-dir]

Arguments

• project-path - Path to your project (default: current directory)
• output-dir - Output directory for markdown files (default: ./claude-prompts)

Options

• -h, --help - Show help message
• -v, --version - Show version number
• -V, --verbose - Enable verbose output for debugging
• --list - List available sessions without exporting

Examples

# Export from current directory
claude-prompts

# Export from specific project
claude-prompts /Users/username/my-project

# Export to custom directory
claude-prompts /Users/username/my-project ./my-exports

# List sessions without exporting
claude-prompts --list /Users/username/my-project

# Enable verbose mode for debugging
claude-prompts -V /Users/username/my-project

Programmatic API

const ClaudePromptExporter = require('claude-code-exporter');

// Create exporter instance
const exporter = new ClaudePromptExporter('/path/to/project', {
  verbose: true  // Optional: enable debug output
});

// Export to markdown files
const result = exporter.exportToMarkdown('./output-directory');
console.log(`Exported ${result.sessionsExported} sessions`);

// Or just extract prompts without exporting
const sessions = exporter.extractPrompts();
sessions.forEach(({ sessionId, prompts }) => {
  console.log(`Session ${sessionId}: ${prompts.length} prompts`);
});

📄 Output Format

Each exported markdown file follows this structure:

# Claude Code Session Export

## Session Information

- **Session ID**: `2ead3268-3c7c-48ab-b46b-8b7a706d097c`
- **Total Prompts**: 7
- **First Prompt**: 12/25/2024, 10:30:45 AM
- **Last Prompt**: 12/25/2024, 11:45:23 AM
- **Project Path**: `/Users/username/my-project`

---

## Prompt 1

> 12/25/2024, 10:30:45 AM

Create a REST API with Express.js for a todo application

---

## Prompt 2

> 12/25/2024, 10:35:12 AM

Add authentication using JWT tokens

File Naming Convention

Files are named using the pattern: {session-id}-{title}.md

• session-id: Unique identifier for the Claude session
• title: Generated from the first few words of the initial prompt

Example: 2ead3268-3c7c-48ab-b46b-8b7a706d097c-create-rest-api-with.md

🔍 Examples

Example 1: Documenting Project Development

Export all prompts from your project development:

claude-prompts ~/projects/my-app ./documentation/claude-sessions

Example 2: Creating a Learning Archive

Archive your Claude Code learning sessions:

claude-prompts ~/learning/javascript ./learning-archive

Example 3: Batch Processing Multiple Projects

const ClaudePromptExporter = require('claude-code-exporter');
const projects = [
  '/Users/me/project1',
  '/Users/me/project2',
  '/Users/me/project3'
];

projects.forEach(projectPath => {
  try {
    const exporter = new ClaudePromptExporter(projectPath);
    const outputDir = `./exports/${path.basename(projectPath)}`;
    exporter.exportToMarkdown(outputDir);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(`Failed to export ${projectPath}: ${error.message}`);
  }
});

⚙️ Configuration

Requirements

• Node.js: Version 14.0.0 or higher
• Claude Code: Must be installed with sessions stored in ~/.claude/projects/
• Operating System: macOS, Linux, or Windows

Environment Variables

The exporter uses standard environment variables:

• HOME (macOS/Linux) or USERPROFILE (Windows) - Used to locate the Claude home directory

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"No Claude sessions found for project"

Cause: The project path doesn't match any Claude Code sessions.

Solution:

1. Verify the project path is correct
2. Ensure you have Claude Code sessions for this project
3. Check that sessions exist in ~/.claude/projects/
4. Use --verbose flag for detailed debugging output

"Claude home directory not found"

Cause: Claude Code is not installed or not in the expected location.

Solution:

1. Install Claude Code from claude.ai
2. Verify ~/.claude/ directory exists
3. Check environment variables HOME or USERPROFILE

Empty or Missing Prompts

Cause: Sessions may contain only system messages or commands.

Solution:

1. The exporter automatically filters system-generated content
2. Verify your sessions contain actual user prompts
3. Use --list to preview available sessions

Debug Mode

Enable verbose output for troubleshooting:

claude-prompts --verbose /path/to/project

This will show:

• Path encoding details
• Session discovery process
• Message filtering information
• Processing statistics

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Development Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/claude-code-exporter.git
cd claude-code-exporter

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run tests
npm test

# Test CLI locally
./bin/claude-prompts /path/to/test/project

Code Style

• Use 2 spaces for indentation
• Follow Node.js best practices
• Add JSDoc comments for public methods
• Ensure all tests pass before submitting PR

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built for the Claude Code community
• Inspired by the need to document AI-assisted development
• Thanks to all contributors and users

📚 Resources

• Claude Code Documentation
• Report Issues
• NPM Package

Made with ❤️ for developers