POC: Unarchive Claude sessions
A proof-of-concept Go TUI for exploring Claude session files directly — browse, filter, archive, unarchive, and delete.
If you use Claude Desktop heavily, you’ve probably hit the archive limit. Claude starts auto-archiving older sessions, and there’s no way to undo that through the app itself. The sessions aren’t gone — they’re sitting in a JSON file on your filesystem — but the UI just won’t surface them again.
I got tired of manually editing JSON, so I put together claude-sesh-manager as a proof of concept: a terminal UI in Go for exploring and managing those session files.
What the POC demonstrates
- Browse all your sessions sorted by last modified
- Type-to-filter as you go
- Multi-select for bulk actions
- Archive, unarchive, view details, or send to Trash
The prototype can scan Claude Code CLI transcripts, Claude Desktop sessions, and Cowork sessions — they all live in predictable paths, so it can find them in one place.
Why Go + TUI
Honestly, I just wanted a fast binary with no runtime dependencies. The tool reads local files, no network, no auth — a single Go binary felt right. I used Bubble Tea for the TUI, which has a nice Elm-style model that makes it easy to reason about state transitions without things getting messy.
The repository also includes a GoReleaser setup for building macOS binaries for Intel and Apple Silicon. The project is still a rough POC, though, rather than a polished release.
The actual problem it solves
The core issue is that Claude’s session storage is just files, but the app treats it like a black box. Once a session gets archived, it’s effectively invisible unless you go digging in ~/Library/Application Support. This POC is a thin layer over that filesystem — no clever tricks, just direct access to what’s already there.
If you’ve been living with this friction, the repository shows one possible direction. If you’re on a different OS or want to add features, PRs are open.
Limitations
A few things worth knowing about the current POC:
Proof of concept. This is an exploratory prototype, not a finished or production-ready application. Expect rough edges, incomplete coverage, and breaking changes while the approach evolves.
CLI-first, for now. This tool targets people comfortable in a terminal. There’s no GUI — you’re navigating a TUI with keyboard shortcuts. If that’s not your workflow, it’s probably not the right fit yet.
macOS and Linux only. Windows isn’t supported at the moment. The session file paths and some filesystem assumptions are Unix-specific. Windows support is on the roadmap, and so is a native GUI — the plan is to eventually make this accessible to users who don’t live in a terminal. For now though, it’s a CLI tool for CLI people.