Beware, Claude Code deletes >30 day old transcripts. Anthropic won't fix it

A bug in Anthropic's Claude Code tool silently deletes conversation transcripts older than 30 days by default, causing users to lose months of reasoning history without warning. The issue, filed on GitHub, shows the cleanupPeriodDays default is set to 30 with no disclosure or opt-in, and Anthropic has declined to fix it. Users must manually override the setting to prevent data loss.

- Notifications /login?return to=%2Fanthropics%2Fclaude-code You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 21.8k /login?return to=%2Fanthropics%2Fclaude-code BUG Claude Code silently deletes conversation transcripts after 30 days by default 62476 bugSomething isn't working https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=state%3Aopen%20label%3A%22bug%22 Something isn't working Description Preflight Checklist - I have searched existing issues https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3Abug and this hasn't been reported yet - This is a single bug report please file separate reports for different bugs - I am using the latest version of Claude Code What's Wrong? cleanupPeriodDays defaults to 30, causing Claude Code to silently delete ~/.claude/projects//.jsonl files older than 30 days on startup. There is no first-run disclosure, no warning before deletion, and the setting is not surfaced in /config. I lost months of conversation history before realizing this was happening. Repro: Use Claude Code for 30 days without setting cleanupPeriodDays. Old transcripts disappear. Evidence on my machine: ~/.claude/history.jsonl shows 14 sessions / 1,315 prompts for one project from March–April. Only the current session's .jsonl survives in ~/.claude/projects/. The cutoff matches the 30-day default exactly. My settings.json does not override the default. Impact: The code and git history remain, but the reasoning trail — design discussions, debugging context, analysis — is gone. For research work that context is the artifact. What Should Happen? Requested: - Change the default to non-destructive disabled, or very long retention . - Disclose at first run; require opt-in for auto-deletion. - Soft-delete to a trash folder instead of unlink . - Surface the setting in /config. Workaround for others: add "cleanupPeriodDays": 3650 to ~/.claude/settings.json immediately. Error Messages/Logs Steps to Reproduce Use Claude Code for 30 days without setting cleanupPeriodDays. Old transcripts disappear. Claude Model None Is this a regression? I don't know Last Working Version No response Claude Code Version 2.1.150 Platform Anthropic API Operating System Ubuntu/Debian Linux Terminal/Shell Other Additional Information No response Metadata Metadata Assignees Labels bugSomething isn't working https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=state%3Aopen%20label%3A%22bug%22 Something isn't working Type Fields Give feedback https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/189141