cchat

Browse and search Claude Code conversation history from the terminal.

cchat reads the JSONL conversation logs that Claude Code stores in ~/.claude/projects/ and presents them as readable conversation turns. It handles compaction stitching, branch detection, and the full UUID tree structure so you don't have to parse raw JSONL yourself.

Install

pip / pipx

pip install cchat
# or
pipx install cchat

curl (no pip needed)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asparagusbeef/cchat/main/cchat.py \
  -o ~/.local/bin/cchat && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/cchat

wget

wget -qO ~/.local/bin/cchat \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asparagusbeef/cchat/main/cchat.py && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/cchat

PowerShell (Windows without WSL)

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asparagusbeef/cchat/main/cchat.py" `
  -OutFile "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\cchat\cchat.py"

Note: cchat reads ~/.claude/projects/ which is a Linux/macOS path. On native Windows (not WSL), Claude Code may store data differently.

Quick start

# List recent sessions in the current project
cchat list

# View the last 5 turns of the latest session
cchat view

# View a specific session (by index from list)
cchat view 2

# Search across all sessions
cchat search "error handling"

Commands

View options

Session selection

Sessions can be specified by:

• Index: cchat view 2 (2nd most recent from cchat list)
• UUID prefix: cchat view a1b2c3 (matches session ID)
• Omitted: uses the most recent session

How it works

Claude Code stores each conversation as a JSONL file in ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/. Each line is a JSON entry with a type (user, assistant, system, etc.) and a UUID-based parent-child tree.

cchat:

1. Resolves the active path by walking the UUID tree from the last entry backward
2. Stitches across compaction boundaries using logicalParentUuid links (or positional fallback)
3. Groups entries into turns (one user message + full assistant response)
4. Detects branch points by filtering out mechanical fan-out (tool_use forks, progress entries)

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• No dependencies (stdlib only)
• Clipboard copy uses clip.exe (WSL) — other platforms not yet supported

Contributing

Setup

git clone https://github.com/asparagusbeef/cchat.git
cd cchat
pip install -e ".[test]"

Running tests

pytest -v                          # full suite
pytest tests/test_session.py -v    # single module
pytest --cov=cchat --cov-report=term   # with coverage

Project structure

cchat.py          # entire application (single-file)
tests/
  conftest.py     # shared fixtures, mock project dirs
  fixtures/       # synthetic JSONL sessions matching real Claude Code format
  test_utils.py
  test_formatting.py
  test_session.py
  test_message_extraction.py
  test_project_resolver.py
  test_session_index.py
  test_cli.py

Test fixtures are synthetic JSONL files that match the real Claude Code session format (streaming chunks, UUID trees, compaction boundaries). See tests/fixtures/ for examples of the expected data shape.

Guidelines

• Keep it as a single Python file with zero runtime dependencies.
• Tests go in tests/. Fixtures go in tests/fixtures/.
• Run the full test suite before opening a PR.

License

MIT