Bring your Claude history
Move what the Claude app already knows about you into your agent, so it doesn't start from zero. Step by step, no coding needed.
If you've been using the Claude app (claude.ai, or the desktop or phone app), it has months of your chats and a memory of who you are. Your new agent starts out knowing none of that. This page moves it over in three moves: hand Claude a brief, download the zip it makes, give the zip to your agent.
The brief is a one-page set of instructions you give to Claude. It tells Claude to search all your past chats and its memory, and to write what it finds as tidy notes, with a source for every fact. You don't edit anything or write any instructions yourself.
Why not Claude's data export?
The export in Claude's settings is a raw dump of every chat, not notes your agent can use. On Team and Enterprise plans, only the organization's Primary Owner can request it at all. The brief works for everyone and gives back something readable.
Before you start
- A paid Claude plan. Searching past chats works on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise.
- Your agent set up, on plugin version 0.6.2 or newer (older versions can't open zips). Not sure? Ask your agent "what plugin version are you on?" To update, see Updating.
- Use your computer, not your phone: you'll be downloading and dragging files.
- Some patience. On a long history, Claude can search for a good while before it hands anything back.
Switch on two settings in Claude
Claude needs to be allowed to search your old chats and to make a file you can download. Open Claude, click your name at the bottom left, then Settings:
| Where | Turn on | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Settings → Memory | Search and reference chats and Generate memory from chats | Lets Claude read your past chats and its memory |
| Settings → Capabilities | Code execution and file creation (on some accounts it's called Cloud code execution and file creation) | Lets Claude build the zip for you to download |
On a Team or Enterprise plan?
Your organization's owner controls these. Memory has to be switched on for the whole organization first (Organization settings → Capabilities), and only then can you turn it on for yourself. If you can't find a setting, ask whoever manages your company's Claude account.
Pack your history
Download the brief
⬇ Download the brief
It saves as claude-history-brief.md in your Downloads folder. Curious what it says? Read it in full at the bottom of this page.
Start a new chat and attach the brief
In Claude, click New chat in the sidebar. Don't start it from inside a Project, or Claude only searches that Project.
Drag claude-history-brief.md from your Downloads folder into the chat box (or click the + button and choose the file). Then paste this message and send it:
I'm moving to a new AI agent that runs on my computer.
Follow the attached brief to pack up everything you know
about me and my work from our past chats.
Take your time and be thorough.Want Claude to dig into something specific? Add a sentence at the end, like "Also search for our spring launch and the Acme deal."
Wait, then download the zip
Claude searches in rounds, and you'll see each search go by. When it's done, it replies with three things:
- How many chats it covered, and the date range
- The five things your agent most needs to know about you
- What it couldn't find or wasn't sure about
Read the third one. If something important is missing, tell Claude in the same chat: "You missed our hiring plans, search for those and add them to the zip."
Then click the zip, named like claude-history-2026-10-04.zip, to download it. Don't unzip it. Your agent opens it.
Repeat inside each Project that matters
Using Claude Projects? Open each Project you care about, start a new chat inside it, attach the same brief, and send:
Follow the attached brief for this Project only.Each Project gives you its own zip, named after the Project. Download every one. Skip Projects you no longer care about.
No Projects? Skip this step.
Give the zips to your agent
Start your agent the usual way, from its folder. Paste this message, but don't press Enter yet:
Here's my Claude app history, packed as one or more claude-history zips.
1. Copy each zip as it is into knowledge/raw/inbox/. Don't unzip it,
and leave my originals where they are.
2. Run your knowledge-compile skill.
3. Read the archived files, starting with each 00-readme.md, and file
what the compile doesn't, following the Memory Routing table in
your manual: about-me and memory into my user profile; decisions,
workstreams and open loops into your memory; people and
organizations into a people article.
4. Treat several zips as one history, and keep both sides of any conflict.
5. Show me a table of what you learned and where it lives, then any
conflicts and gaps.
The zips:Now drag each zip from your Downloads folder into the agent's window, one after another. Each one drops in as a file path at the end of your message. Then press Enter.
Check what it learned
Your agent ends with a table: each area, what it now knows, and where it saved it. Look it over, then correct anything that's off in plain words: "That launch moved to March". It logs every correction.
To browse everything it wrote, open the agent's folder in Obsidian. The notes from the zip are under knowledge/raw/archive/inbox/, and what the agent made of them is in knowledge/.
What's in the zip
Every zip has the same set of notes. Each note opens with its title, type, and the dates it covers, and every fact ends with the chat it came from.
A Project's zip has the same notes, each starting with the Project's name, plus the Project's instructions and a copy of its text files.
What stays private
- The brief tells Claude to leave out passwords, API keys, card and bank numbers, ID numbers, and personal matters that don't shape how you work.
- The zip downloads to your computer. Your agent keeps everything as plain files in its folder, which you can open, read, and edit.
- Claude only uses what's actually in your chats and memory. Anything it guessed is marked
(inferred).
If something's off
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Claude says it can't search past chats | Search and reference chats is off, or you're on the free plan. See Switch on two settings |
| Claude writes the notes in the chat instead of a zip | File creation is off. Turn it on in Settings → Capabilities, then ask "Now make the zip." If you can't, ask Claude to give you each file as its own download instead |
| Claude stops partway and gives you a line to paste | It ran out of room. Download the zip it made, start a new chat, attach the brief again, and paste that line. The second zip's files start with part2-. Give both zips to your agent |
| Claude found only a few chats | You're probably inside a Project, which only searches that Project. Start the chat from outside any Project |
| Your agent says it can't open zip files | Your plugin is older than 0.6.2. Update it, restart the agent, and paste the message again |
| Your agent starts working before you dragged the zips in | You pressed Enter too early. Reply with the zips dragged in: "Here are the zips." |
| Two zips disagree about something | Expected: the agent keeps both versions and flags them as a conflict. Tell it which one is right |
The full brief
This is exactly what the download contains. You can also copy it from here and paste it into Claude instead of attaching the file.