Claude Code Local Storage Context History on Your Device: Deleted After 30 Days

Anthropic's Claude Code stores local context history on a user's device and deletes it after 30 days. Consumer users on Free, Pro, and Max plans can opt in to allow their data to improve future Claude models, while commercial users under Team, Enterprise, API, and third-party platforms are not trained on unless they explicitly opt in via the Development Partner Program. Feedback submitted via /feedback, /bug, or /share commands is retained for 5 years, and session quality surveys record only ratings unless users separately consent to share transcripts for up to 6 months.

Data policies Data training policy Consumer users Free, Pro, and Max plans : We give you the choice to allow your data to be used to improve future Claude models. We will train new models using data from Free, Pro, and Max accounts when this setting is on including when you use Claude Code from these accounts . Commercial users : Team and Enterprise plans, API, 3rd-party platforms, and Claude Gov maintain existing policies: Anthropic does not train generative models using code or prompts sent to Claude Code under commercial terms, unless the customer has chosen to provide their data to us for model improvement for example, the Developer Partner Program https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11174108-about-the-development-partner-program . Development Partner Program If you explicitly opt in to methods to provide us with materials to train on, such as via the Development Partner Program https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11174108-about-the-development-partner-program , we may use those materials provided to train our models. An organization admin can expressly opt-in to the Development Partner Program for their organization. Note that this program is available only for Anthropic first-party API, and not for Amazon Bedrock or Google Cloud’s Agent Platform users. Feedback using the /feedback command If you choose to send us feedback about Claude Code using the /feedback command, we may use your feedback to improve our products and services. Transcripts shared via /feedback , or via /bug and /share , which report through the same path, are retained for 5 years. Session quality surveys When you see the “How is Claude doing this session?” prompt in Claude Code, responding to this survey, including selecting “Dismiss”, records only your rating. We do not collect or store any conversation transcripts, inputs, outputs, or other session data as part of the rating prompt itself. Unlike thumbs up/down feedback or /feedback reports, this session quality survey is a simple product satisfaction metric. After the rating prompt, you may see a separate follow-up asking “Can Anthropic look at your session transcript to help us improve Claude Code?”. This is an optional second step distinct from the rating: Yes : uploads your conversation transcript, any subagent transcripts, and the raw session log file from disk to Anthropic. Known API key and token patterns are redacted before upload. Source code, file contents, and other conversation content are uploaded as-is. Shared transcripts are retained for up to 6 months. On Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Agent Platform, Microsoft Foundry, and signed-in Claude apps gateway /docs/en/claude-apps-gateway sessions, Yes writes the same payload to a local archive under ~/.claude/feedback-bundles/ instead of uploading; nothing leaves your machine until you forward that file. No : declines without sending anything Don’t ask again : declines and stops this follow-up from appearing in future sessions Yes . Organizations with zero data retention /docs/en/zero-data-retention , or where product feedback is disabled by organization policy, or where CLAUDE CODE DISABLE NONESSENTIAL TRAFFIC is set, never see this follow-up. Your responses to this survey, including session transcripts submitted after the rating prompt, do not impact your data training preferences and cannot be used to train our AI models. To disable these surveys, set CLAUDE CODE DISABLE FEEDBACK SURVEY=1 . The survey is also disabled when DISABLE TELEMETRY , DO NOT TRACK , or CLAUDE CODE DISABLE NONESSENTIAL TRAFFIC is set. Organizations that block nonessential traffic but capture survey responses through their own OpenTelemetry collector /docs/en/monitoring-usage can opt the survey back in by setting CLAUDE CODE ENABLE FEEDBACK SURVEY FOR OTEL=1 . The survey then logs ratings to the configured collector only. The transcript-share follow-up and all other Anthropic-bound feedback traffic stay disabled. To control frequency instead of disabling, set in your settings file to a probability between /docs/en/settings available-settings feedbackSurveyRate 0 and 1 . Data retention Anthropic retains Claude Code data based on your account type and preferences. Consumer users Free, Pro, and Max plans : - Users who allow data use for model improvement: 5-year retention period to support model development and safety improvements - Users who don’t allow data use for model improvement: 30-day retention period - Privacy settings can be changed at any time at claude.ai/settings/data-privacy-controls https://claude.ai/settings/data-privacy-controls . Commercial users Team, Enterprise, and API : - Standard: 30-day retention period Zero data retention /docs/en/zero-data-retention : available to qualified accounts for Claude Code on Claude for Enterprise. ZDR is not included in the standard Enterprise plan; it is enabled on a per-organization basis by your account team after confirming eligibility- Local caching: Claude Code clients store session transcripts locally in plaintext under ~/.claude/projects/ for 30 days by default to enable session resumption. Adjust the period with cleanupPeriodDays . See application data /docs/en/claude-directory application-data for what’s stored and how to clear it. Delete sessions /docs/en/claude-code-on-the-web delete-sessions . Learn more about data retention practices in our Privacy Center https://privacy.anthropic.com/ . For full details, please review our Commercial Terms of Service https://www.anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms for Team, Enterprise, and API users or Consumer Terms https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms for Free, Pro, and Max users and Privacy Policy https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy . Data access For all first party users, you can learn more about what data is logged for local Claude Code local-claude-code-data-flow-and-dependencies and remote Claude Code cloud-execution-data-flow-and-dependencies . Remote Control /docs/en/remote-control sessions follow the local data flow since all execution happens on your machine; while connected, the session transcript is also stored on Anthropic servers to sync the conversation across devices, as described in Connection and security /docs/en/remote-control connection-and-security . Note for remote Claude Code, Claude accesses the repository where you initiate your Claude Code session. Claude does not access repositories that you have connected but have not started a session in. Local Claude Code: Data flow and dependencies The diagram below shows how Claude Code connects to external services during installation and normal operation. Solid lines indicate required connections, while dashed lines represent optional or user-initiated data flows. Claude Code runs locally. To interact with the LLM, Claude Code sends data over the network. This data includes all user prompts and model outputs, encrypted in transit via TLS 1.2+. Claude Code is compatible with most popular VPNs and LLM proxies. Encryption at rest depends on your model provider: Claude Code is built on Anthropic’s APIs. For details on API security controls, including API logging procedures, see the compliance artifacts in the Anthropic Trust Center https://trust.anthropic.com . Cloud execution: Data flow and dependencies When using Claude Code on the web /docs/en/claude-code-on-the-web , sessions run in Anthropic-managed virtual machines instead of locally. In cloud environments: Code and data storage: Your repository is cloned to an isolated VM. Code and session data are subject to the retention and usage policies for your account type see Data retention section above Credentials: GitHub authentication is handled through a secure proxy; your GitHub credentials never enter the sandbox Network traffic: All outbound traffic goes through a security proxy for audit logging and abuse prevention Session data: Prompts, code changes, and outputs follow the same data policies as local Claude Code usage Security /docs/en/security cloud-execution-security . Telemetry services Claude Code sends two kinds of operational telemetry: usage metrics and error reports. You can turn each off individually with the environment variables below, or disable all non-essential traffic at once by setting CLAUDE CODE DISABLE NONESSENTIAL TRAFFIC . Metrics : latency, reliability, and usage patterns, sent to Anthropic and to third-party logging infrastructure over TLS. Metrics never include your code, prompts, or file paths. Set DISABLE TELEMETRY=1 to opt out. Error reports : error messages and stack traces from Claude Code’s own internals, sent to a third-party error tracking service over TLS. Claude Code redacts known patterns of secrets, file paths, email addresses, and other personal information before anything leaves your machine. Set DISABLE ERROR REPORTING=1 to opt out. Error reporting is on only when all of these apply: - you sign in with a Claude Pro or Max subscription - you’re running Claude Code v2.1.198 or later - you’re connecting directly to the Claude API - your organization doesn’t have a zero data retention or HIPAA agreement /feedback command, a copy of your conversation history including code is sent to Anthropic. The /bug and /share commands submit through the same path. Before submitting, you choose how much history to include: the current session only, which is the default, or also other sessions from the same project over the last 24 hours or 7 days. The data is encrypted in transit via TLS and stored in Google Cloud Storage, which encrypts stored data at rest by default. Optionally, a GitHub issue is created in the public repository. To opt out, set the DISABLE FEEDBACK COMMAND environment variable to 1 . When you use a third-party provider such as Amazon Bedrock or Google Cloud’s Agent Platform, or have no Anthropic credentials configured, /feedback writes the report to a local archive under ~/.claude/feedback-bundles/ instead of sending it to Anthropic. Known API key and token patterns are redacted before the archive is written. Nothing leaves your machine until you send that file to your Anthropic account representative or attach it to a support request. Default behaviors by API provider By default, error reporting, telemetry, and bug reporting are disabled when using Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Agent Platform, Microsoft Foundry, or Claude Platform on AWS. Session quality surveys and the WebFetch domain safety check are exceptions and run regardless of provider. On a signed-in Claude apps gateway /docs/en/claude-apps-gateway session, usage analytics, error reporting, and survey ratings to Anthropic are disabled by the gateway credential itself, with no setting to re-enable them. You can opt out of all non-essential traffic, including surveys, at once by setting CLAUDE CODE DISABLE NONESSENTIAL TRAFFIC . This variable doesn’t affect the WebFetch check or official plugin marketplace auto-install; each has its own opt-out: skipWebFetchPreflight in settings /docs/en/settings for WebFetch, and CLAUDE CODE DISABLE OFFICIAL MARKETPLACE AUTOINSTALL for the marketplace. Here are the full default behaviors: All environment variables can be checked into settings.json see settings reference /docs/en/settings . As of v2.1.126, when a host platform sets CLAUDE CODE PROVIDER MANAGED BY HOST , metrics default to on for Google Cloud’s Agent Platform, Amazon Bedrock, and Microsoft Foundry, and follow the standard DISABLE TELEMETRY opt-out. Error reporting and /feedback reports remain off by default on those providers. WebFetch domain safety check Before fetching a URL, the WebFetch tool sends the requested hostname to api.anthropic.com to check it against a safety blocklist maintained by Anthropic. Only the hostname is sent, not the full URL, path, or page contents. Results are cached per hostname for five minutes. This check runs regardless of which model provider you use and is not affected by CLAUDE CODE DISABLE NONESSENTIAL TRAFFIC . If your network blocks api.anthropic.com , WebFetch requests fail until you either allowlist the domain or set skipWebFetchPreflight: true in settings /docs/en/settings . Disabling the check means WebFetch attempts to retrieve any URL without consulting the blocklist, so combine it with if you need to restrict which domains Claude can reach. /docs/en/permissions webfetch WebFetch permission rules