promptvault-py 0.0.9

Turn your Claude Code conversation history into a searchable markdown library + SQLite database

Your Claude Code conversations, searchable forever.

---

The Problem

Claude Code stores conversations in ~/.claude/history.jsonl — not searchable, not browsable, not persistent. Claude compacts and deletes old sessions without warning.

pv turns that history into a searchable markdown library + SQLite database. Browse in Obsidian, search from the terminal with fzf. Zero dependencies. Pure stdlib.

---

Quick Start

# recommended — fast, isolated, always on PATH
uv tool install promptvault-py

# alternative — same idea, traditional tool
pipx install promptvault-py

pv-sync                        # sync your Claude Code history
pv                             # browse conversations
pv search "database migration" # full-text search

# upgrade to latest version
uv tool upgrade promptvault-py   # or: pipx upgrade promptvault-py

Don't have uv? curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh (docs)

Don't have pipx? brew install pipx or pip install --user pipx (docs)

Both tools install pv into an isolated virtualenv and symlink the executable to ~/.local/bin/, so it's available globally — no environment activation needed.

pv is the short alias. promptvault / promptvault-sync also work.

Optional: install fzf for the interactive UI (brew install fzf / apt install fzf). Without it, pv falls back to plain text.

---

How It Works

pv-sync reads history.jsonl, groups prompts by conversation, and generates:

1. Markdown vault — One .md per conversation, YYYY/MM/ structure, YAML frontmatter. Drop into Obsidian.
2. SQLite database — FTS5 full-text search with BM25 ranking. Millisecond queries.

The sync is idempotent — always rebuilds from source, impossible to reach a bad state. Resolves pasted-text placeholders, deduplicates prompts, filters slash commands, cleans whitespace.

---

Commands

All commands launch fzf by default (split pane: conversation list + live preview). Add --no-fzf for plain text.

Command	Description
pv	Browse all conversations interactively
pv search "query"	Full-text search ranked by relevance
pv recent [N]	Last N conversations (default 20)
pv list [--date DATE] [--project NAME]	Filter by date or project
pv stats	Vault overview
pv-sync	Rebuild vault + database

Controls:

Key	Action
Enter	Open in $EDITOR (returns to fzf)
Ctrl-O	Open in $EDITOR (exits fzf)
Ctrl-T	Toggle conversation / prompt view
Ctrl-P	Cycle project filter
Ctrl-D	Cycle date range (all/today/week/month)
Ctrl-B	Toggle bookmark on selected conversation
Ctrl-G	Show only bookmarked conversations
Ctrl-Y	Copy to clipboard
Ctrl-E	Export to file (save dialog)
Ctrl-X	Exclude from results
Ctrl-/	Toggle preview
Tab	Multi-select
Esc	Quit

Full documentation: docs/usage.md

---

Shell Widget

Insert a previous prompt directly into your command line with Alt-P:

# Add to your shell config:
eval "$(pv shell-init zsh)"    # or bash

Customise the key with PROMPTVAULT_WIDGET_KEY (default: \ep = Alt-P).

---

Real-Time Capture

A Claude Code hook captures prompts the moment you send them — no sync needed.

Add to ~/.claude/hooks.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "UserPromptSubmit": [{
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "python3 /path/to/promptvault/promptvault/hook.py",
        "timeout": 5000
      }]
    }]
  }
}

Fast (<50ms), silent (no stdout), safe (errors swallowed). Captures to ~/.claude/prompt-library/capture.jsonl.

Windows: use python instead of python3 and backslash paths.

---

Markdown Vault

Each conversation becomes an Obsidian-compatible .md with YAML frontmatter:

~/.claude/prompt-library/vault/
├── _index.md
├── 2026/
│   └── 03/
│       ├── 2026-03-25__c792e74f__refactor-user-auth.md
│       └── ...

Open as an Obsidian vault. The Calendar plugin works well for browsing.

---

Environment Variables

Variable	Default
PROMPTVAULT_HISTORY	~/.claude/history.jsonl
PROMPTVAULT_OUTPUT	~/.claude/prompt-library
PROMPTVAULT_DB	~/.claude/prompt-library/prompts.db
PROMPTVAULT_VAULT	~/.claude/prompt-library/vault
PROMPTVAULT_PROJECTS	~/.claude/projects
PROMPTVAULT_CAPTURE_LOG	~/.claude/prompt-library/capture.jsonl

---

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md. 340 tests, all synthetic data.

git clone https://github.com/reidemeister94/promptvault.git
cd promptvault
uv tool install --editable .   # global "pv" that tracks your local source
make setup-dev-env
make test && make lint

---

License

MIT

---

If pv saves your prompts, save us a

Report an issue · Contribute