Save conversation

Export the current Claude Code conversation to a clean, readable markdown file.

How it works

Claude Code automatically stores conversation history in .jsonl files at ~/.claude/projects/[project-folder]/[session-id].jsonl. This skill parses those logs and transforms them into nicely formatted markdown.

Usage

When the user invokes this skill:

1. Identify the current session ID and project folder path
2. Run the export script with appropriate arguments
3. Report the saved file path to the user

Basic invocation

python3 ~/.claude/skills/save-conversation/scripts/export.py \
  --session-id SESSION_UUID \
  --project-path PROJECT_FOLDER_NAME \
  --topic "optional-topic-slug"

Arguments

Finding the arguments

Session ID: Available from the conversation context. Look for the sessionId field in the conversation or check the most recently modified .jsonl file in the project folder.

Project path: Derived from the current working directory by replacing / with - and prefixing with -. For example:

• /Users/ph/.claude/skills → -Users-ph--claude-skills

Output format

The script produces a markdown file with this structure:

# Conversation: {topic}

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
**Session:** {session-id}

---

## User

{user message content}

---

## Claude

{assistant response}

> Used tool: ToolName

---

## User

{next user message}

...

What gets included

• User messages: Full text content
• Assistant text responses: All prose/explanation content
• Tool usage: Single-line summaries (e.g., > Used tool: Bash)

What gets excluded

• Thinking blocks (internal reasoning)
• Tool outputs (keeps transcript clean)
• File history snapshots (internal state)
• Raw JSON metadata

Output location

Saved files go to:

~/.claude/skills/save-conversation/transcripts/YYYY-MM-DD-{topic}.md

Workflow

To save the current conversation:

1. Note the session ID from context (or find via ls -lt ~/.claude/projects/[project-path]/*.jsonl | head -1)
2. Determine the project path from the current working directory
3. Run the export script
4. Confirm the file was saved and report the path

Example

# For a conversation in /Users/ph/.claude/skills with session 50e09818-de5f-4fa8-8769-92f3ea6f974c
python3 ~/.claude/skills/save-conversation/scripts/export.py \
  --session-id "50e09818-de5f-4fa8-8769-92f3ea6f974c" \
  --project-path "-Users-ph--claude-skills" \
  --topic "save-conversation-skill"

Scripts

scripts/export.py

Main export script. Parses .jsonl conversation logs and outputs clean markdown.

Features:

• Extracts user messages and assistant text responses
• Summarises tool usage without verbose output
• Skips thinking blocks and internal metadata
• Generates timestamped filenames with topic slugs
• Creates the transcripts directory if needed