Session Export Skill

Export Claude Code session JSONL logs to readable, UI-style text format matching the native /export command output.

Capabilities

• Export session transcripts from ~/.claude/projects/<project>/<session-id>.jsonl
• Generate formatted output matching Claude Code's native export style
• Support browsing recent sessions or exporting specific session IDs
• Create timestamped exports with flexible output location

Workflow

1. Identify the Session

When the user asks to export a session, determine which session to export:

If user provides a session ID:

• Look for the JSONL file at ~/.claude/projects/<project-path>/<session-id>.jsonl

If user wants to browse recent sessions:

• List recent sessions from ~/.claude/projects/ for the current project
• Show session timestamps and let user choose

To find sessions for the current project:

ls -lt ~/.claude/projects/$(pwd | sed 's|/|%|g')/*.jsonl | head -10

2. Determine Output Location

Check project context first:

• Look for existing session/transcript directories (e.g., sessions/, transcripts/, chronicles/, docs/sessions/)
• Check CLAUDE.md or project documentation for session export conventions
• If a pattern exists, follow it

If no project convention exists, ask the user:

• Suggest a sensible default like ./sessions/YYYY-MM-DDThhmm-<description>.txt
• Let user specify their preferred location
• Remember their preference for future exports in this session

Output filename format: YYYY-MM-DDThhmm-<description>.txt

• Date/time from the session or current timestamp
• Description from session summary or user-provided label

3. Run the Export Script

The export script is located at: <plugin-dir>/skills/session-export/scripts/export-session.py

python3 <plugin-dir>/skills/session-export/scripts/export-session.py <session-file.jsonl> <output-path.txt>

4. Report Results

After export, report:

• Output file path and size
• Session summary if available
• Number of messages/turns exported

Export Format

The export produces UI-style readable text with:

• Claude ASCII art header with version and project path

• User messages prefixed with >

• Assistant messages with ⏺ bullets

• Tool uses formatted with ⎿ markers

• Concise output (truncates long file contents)

• Filtered meta messages and command tags

• Credentials redacted to [REDACTED], so exports are safe to commit:

  • Keyed secrets, keeping the name: NAME=value, Name = value when the value looks like a credential (INI, WireGuard), "name": value (JSON), name: value at line start (YAML, curl -v) or inside a quoted header (-H "x-api-key: …"), where the name ends in api_key, access_key, secret_key, private_key, client_secret, token, secret, password, or credentials (any case), or is an upper-case env var ending in _KEY. $VAR, $(cmd), %s, {name}, and <name> values are left alone.
  • Bearer/Basic auth values.
  • Private key blocks (PEM, OpenSSH, PGP), keeping the BEGIN/END lines, including blocks cut off before their END line.
  • The password in URLs like postgres://user:password@host, including raw / and @ in it.
  • Access tokens in URL query strings: signature-style parameters (sig, signature, code, X-Amz-Signature, ...) and any long random-looking value (32+ characters with a letter and a digit, not %-encoded text or a path), as in calendar export links and pre-signed S3/GCS URLs, including &-escaped and JSON \u0026-escaped links. UUIDs and git SHAs are kept; other long hashes in a query string, like a ?v=<hash> cache-buster, are redacted too.
  • Token formats recognizable anywhere: Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub, Slack, Google OAuth and API keys, AWS access key IDs, Telegram bot tokens.

  This is pattern matching, not a guarantee. Review an export before publishing it outside a private repo. Known limits, all failing open (the value is exported as-is):

  • Name = value with spaces and no quotes needs a credential-looking value (16+ characters including a digit), so password = hunter2 passes through. NAME=value and quoted values have no such limit.
  • URL passwords longer than 1,024 characters, or containing a space or quote.
  • Secrets under names that don't end in one of the listed suffixes, in formats not listed above. Tests: python3 -m unittest test_export_session.py from scripts/.

Examples

Export current/recent session:

"Export this session" "Save the transcript"

Export specific session:

"Export session abc123" "Export the session from yesterday"

Browse and choose:

"Show me recent sessions to export" "List sessions from this project"

Error Handling

• If session file not found, list available sessions
• If output directory doesn't exist, create it
• If Python script fails, show error and suggest manual export