VS Code Extensions
Claude Chat Archive

Claude Chat Archive

by AndrewAltair

Browse, rename, pin, reorder and reopen any past Claude Code chat from a sidebar archive or quick-pick. Close idle chat tabs to free RAM.

Downloads

31

Rating

(0)

Version

0.5.0

Last updated

Jun 21, 2026

Claude Chat Archive

Browse, reopen, pin, color and icon every Claude Code chat — from a sidebar. Close idle tabs to free RAM.

Marketplace Installs License: MIT

The Chat Archive sidebar

Claude Code already saves every chat as a transcript in ~/.claude/projects. This extension turns those into a browsable archive so you can keep just a few chats open (RAM) and jump back to any of the others on demand.

Features

  • 🗂 Sidebar archive — every chat, grouped by repo, newest first, labeled by its title. Click to open.
  • 🔁 Reopen anything — opens the exact chat by session id (via Claude's own deep link), even one closed long ago.
  • ✏️ Rename any chat to a custom name (local override, never edits Claude's transcript; original stays in the tooltip).
  • 📌 Pin favourites to a group on top (persists across reloads).
  • ↕️ Reorder pinned chats — drag, or "Move to top" / "Move to position..." to set an exact spot (first, fifth, anything). The order is saved.
  • 🎨 Color & icon each chat — one click sets a custom icon and a color so you can tell them apart at a glance.
  • 🔍 Quick-pick searchSearch & Open a Chat, type by title or repo.
  • 🧹 Close Idle Chat Tabs — closes every chat tab except the active/pinned ones to free RAM; they stay in the archive.

How it works

Pure local: reads ~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl (cached by mtime) for titles, repos and dates. Opening a chat calls Claude Code's vscode://anthropic.claude-code/open?session=<id> deep link. No network, no telemetry.

Use

  • Open the Chat Archive view in the activity bar (left).
  • Hover a chat: ✏️ rename · 📌 pin · 🎨 set icon & color. Right-click for Rename chat / Move to top / Move to position... / Set icon / Set color / Reset to default.
  • Reorder: drag a pinned chat up or down, or right-click, Move to position... and type the spot (1 = top).
  • Toolbar (view title): 🔍 search · ✖ close idle tabs · ⟳ refresh.

Settings

  • chatArchive.claudeConfigDir — override ~/.claude.

Install

From the Marketplace (search “Claude Chat Archive”) or:

ext install andrewaltair.chat-archive

Or grab the .vsix from Releases → Extensions → ⋯ → Install from VSIX….

License

MIT © Andrew Altair

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