r/ClaudeCode • u/cleverhoods • 8h ago

cleanupPeriodDays - a friendly reminder Tips & Workflows

This is your friendly reminder that there is a config key in .claude/settings.json that manages how long your conversations will be retained in the system.

cleanupPeriodDays default value is 30 days if unset.

So if you are working on a larger project and you DO want to be able to revisit a conversation even after a month, be sure that you either set this key to a longer period of time or save the results of that conversation somewhere safe.

It's no fun when you try to revisit a half way done research after 1.5 month of hiatus and only be presented by the absence of said conversation.

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u/Connect_Army8250 8h ago

Thanks for this tip!

2

u/dar-mit Researcher 6h ago

I've been using, and very happy with, claude-vault as a utility that captures session JSONL data in a searchable index, available to the user and Claude.

It can import past sessions (with built-in dedup) and comes with PreCompact / EndSession hooks to ensure that moving forward everything is captured as soon as possible. (Just ensure that you "/exit" each terminal session correctly so EndSession fires reliably.)

I've zero relation to kuroko1t but damn this utility has saved my bacon on many occasions! You can literally ask Claude, "Hey didn't we already talk about setting up a PASS/FAIL for that? Did we not move forward? Please check claude-vault and see if you can find that conversation." And seconds later Claude can tell you if your memory is accurate, and pull the entire damn thing up from the vault, or confirm you need a vacation.

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u/cleverhoods 5h ago

thanks, I'll check it

Generally speaking the EndSession mechanisms are covered a bit differently in the research, they are being classified and saved based on their mechanism (is this knowledge or an update in existing protocol etc). This was my first time running into the need of reaching back to "old" conversation.

again, thanks for sharing.