Session Archive

Pick up a conversation in another assistant.

Import ChatGPT and Claude exports into one searchable local archive. Ask a connected assistant to find a session, retrieve a compact handoff, and continue with the relevant context.

Separate from Agent Relay: this project retrieves conversations; it does not launch agent models.

Features

• Local browser UI: full-text search across titles, messages, notes, and attached text files.

• ChatGPT/Claude conversations.json and Markdown/plain-text imports.

• Source/date labels distinguish identically named sessions.

• Repeat imports update provider sessions without duplicates; older dated exports cannot overwrite newer ones.

• Editable handoff notes, bounded transcript excerpts, copy/download continuation packets.

• Read-only MCP over stdio and Streamable HTTP.

• Optional single-owner OAuth: consent, PKCE, expiring tokens, refresh rotation, revocation.

• No API keys, embeddings, paid model calls, or telemetry.

Imports are snapshots, not continuous synchronization. MCP does not export private histories from either app. Import again to include later messages. Actual ChatGPT/Claude app connection acceptance has not been verified; protocol tests use the official MCP SDK client.

For Codex/Claude Code users: step-by-step local installation and practical handoff assessment. Native coding-session ingestion and live workspace inspection are not implemented in v0.1.0.

Related MCP server: transcripts-mcp

Quick start

Requires Node.js 24.13 or newer.

git clone https://github.com/CyberArchitecta/session-archive.git
cd session-archive
npm ci
npm start

Open the private URL printed in your terminal. Click Import, extract your export ZIP, and select conversations.json. Choose a session, save any handoff notes, then Copy handoff into another assistant.

Try the synthetic exports in examples/ first.

An npm-installable tarball is available in GitHub Releases. This package is not published to the npm registry.

npm install -g ./cyberarchitecta-session-archive-0.1.0.tgz
session-archive serve

Connect assistants

See connector setup for Claude Desktop stdio and remote OAuth.

Search Session Archive for "Garden studio plan". If several match, show the source and date. Fetch the selected session's handoff and help me continue. Retrieve more transcript only if needed.

MCP cannot import, edit, delete, read arbitrary paths, or access live app history. Each authorized connector can read all sessions in its archive. Use separate data directories for different access boundaries.

CLI

node bin/session-archive.mjs import /path/to/conversations.json
node bin/session-archive.mjs search garden studio
node bin/session-archive.mjs handoff SESSION_ID
node bin/session-archive.mjs mcp

All commands accept --data /path/to/private-directory. Default: ~/.session-archive. SESSION_ARCHIVE_DATA also sets it. The browser owner key permits archive administration; do not share its private URL.

Limits and fidelity

• ChatGPT follows current_node through parents. Alternative branches are excluded with a warning. A missing current_node falls back to the latest leaf with a warning.

• Claude text/content messages are supported; thinking and tool payload blocks are excluded.

• Unknown JSON schemas fail clearly. Export formats can change; fixtures cover supported shapes.

• Export attachment names are references, not bytes. Attach up to 20 text files per session (200,000 characters each) explicitly to make them retrievable. No image/PDF/binary retrieval or remote fetching.

• Maximum import: 50 MB, 10,000 conversations. Extract ZIP exports first.

• Markdown/text imports are documents without inferred roles. Changed contents create new document snapshots.

• Handoffs are extractive, not AI summaries. Character budgets are not exact token counts.

• OAuth state is in memory; restart revokes connections and requires reconnecting.

• No automatic capture, native session restoration, multi-user isolation, or managed hosting.

• SQLite is unencrypted on disk. Protect the data directory and backups with OS controls.

Development

npm ci
npm run check
npm test
python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
python -m playwright install chromium
python scripts/test-ui.py

Tests use synthetic exports, isolated databases, and no model calls. See verification, architecture, and security.

MIT license.