chat-logbook

A local-first conversation browser for Claude Code.

Status: Early release (v0.2.1). Core browsing and rendering work well. Search, filtering, tagging, and annotations are on the roadmap but not yet implemented. See Roadmap for what's planned.

About

Claude Code stores every conversation as JSONL files in ~/.claude/, but provides no UI to browse or revisit them. chat-logbook fills that gap — it reads those files and presents them in a browser, so you can review past sessions without digging through raw JSON.

Design principles:

• Read-only access to ~/.claude/ — never modify original conversation files.
• Local-only — no data leaves your machine.
• Zero configuration — install and run, nothing else required.

The full problem statement, user stories, and implementation decisions live in the PRD: issue #1.

What works today

• Three-column layout — Resizable panels for filters, session list, and conversation content
• Rich conversation rendering — Markdown, syntax-highlighted code blocks, collapsible tool calls with one-line summaries, and collapsible thinking blocks
• Virtual scrolling — Handles long conversations smoothly with virtualized rendering
• Solarized Dark theme — Easy on the eyes, consistent with Claude Code's terminal aesthetic

Quick start

Requirements: Node.js 20+.

Install globally for a shorter command:

npm install -g chat-logbook
chat-log

Or try without installing:

npx chat-logbook@latest

You should see:

chat-logbook is running at http://localhost:3100

Your browser will open automatically, showing a list of your Claude Code sessions on the left and conversation content on the right.

Troubleshooting

"No conversations found" Make sure you have Claude Code conversation history at ~/.claude/. chat-logbook reads from this directory automatically.

Port already in use By default, chat-logbook runs on port 3100. Use PORT=8080 chat-log to specify a different port.

Updating to the latest version Run npm install -g chat-logbook@latest to update. If you use npx, the @latest tag ensures you always run the newest version.

Architecture

Monorepo with two workspaces, published as a single npm package:

Directory	Role	Stack
api/	Backend — reads ~/.claude/ JSONL files, serves session and message data	Hono + @hono/node-server
web/	Frontend — three-column SPA with conversation rendering	React + Vite + Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui

In production, Hono serves both the API endpoints and the static frontend assets from a single Node.js process. During development, Vite proxies /api requests to the Hono dev server.

How it reads conversations

chat-logbook reads conversation data directly from the JSONL files that Claude Code stores in ~/.claude/. It never modifies these files — your original conversation data is always left untouched.

Only conversations that are written to ~/.claude/ are visible. Ephemeral interactions that Claude Code does not persist (such as /btw side questions) cannot be displayed.

Development

Requirements: Node.js 20+ and pnpm 10+.

git clone https://github.com/evaaaaawu/chat-logbook.git
cd chat-logbook
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Scripts

Command	What it does
pnpm dev	Start dev servers for both workspaces (Vite + Hono)
pnpm build	Build frontend and backend for production
pnpm test	Run all tests (Vitest)
pnpm typecheck	Type-check all workspaces

A Husky pre-commit hook runs Prettier on staged files, type-checks, and runs the test suite on every commit.

FAQ

Does chat-logbook work with Claude Code on the web?

No. chat-logbook reads from local ~/.claude/ files, which are only created by the Claude Code CLI running on your machine. Conversations run via Claude Code on the web (cloud VMs) are not stored locally and are not accessible to chat-logbook.

Why can't I see my /btw conversations?

/btw is designed to be ephemeral — questions and answers appear in a temporary overlay and are never written to conversation history files. If you want a conversation to be preserved and visible in chat-logbook, use a regular message instead of /btw.

Roadmap

• Full-text search — Find conversations by keywords across all projects
• Project filtering — Focus on conversations within a specific project
• Real-time streaming — Watch active conversations update live via SSE
• Keyboard shortcuts — ↑↓ to switch sessions, / to search, Esc to go back
• Soft delete & restore — Hide sessions you don't need; restore them anytime
• Title editing — Customize session titles for easier identification
• Tag system — Add color-coded tags to sessions, filter by multiple tags
• Annotations — Add notes next to any message in a conversation
• Highlights — Mark important text within conversations

License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0-only).

You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of the AGPL-3.0. If you modify the program and make it available over a network, you must release your modified source code under the same license.

For commercial licensing inquiries, please contact the author.