Explore the .claude directory

Claude Code reads instructions, settings, skills, subagents, and memory from your project directory and from ~/.claude in your home directory. Commit project files to git to share them with your team; files in ~/.claude are personal configuration that applies across all your projects. On Windows, ~/.claude resolves to %USERPROFILE%\.claude. If you set CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, every ~/.claude path on this page lives under that directory instead. Most users only edit CLAUDE.md and settings.json. If your repository already has an AGENTS.md for other coding agents, Claude Code can read that on its own or alongside CLAUDE.md. The rest of the directory is optional: add skills, rules, or subagents as you need them.

Explore the directory

Click files in the tree to see what each one does, when it loads, and an example.

What’s not shown

The explorer covers files you author and edit. A few related files live elsewhere:

File	Location	Purpose
`managed-settings.json`	System-level, varies by OS	Enterprise-enforced settings that you can’t override, apart from narrow exceptions. See where to save the file and which managed source Claude Code uses.
`CLAUDE.local.md`	Project root	Your private preferences for this project, loaded alongside CLAUDE.md. Create it manually and add it to `.gitignore`.
`AGENTS.md`	Project root, `.claude/`, or any directory	Project instructions you write for AI coding agents. Claude Code can load it on its own or alongside `CLAUDE.md`.
Installed plugins	`~/.claude/plugins`	Cloned marketplaces, installed plugin versions, the `installed_plugins.json` install record, and per-plugin data, managed by `claude plugin` commands. Plugins synced from your claude.ai account download into `~/.claude/plugins/synced/`. For a plugin installed from a marketplace `command` source in link mode, Claude Code stores links here instead of a copy, and the plugin’s files stay in the directory the command prints. A `command` source requires Claude Code v2.1.229 or later. A plugin listed by relative path in a local-directory marketplace also loads in place from its source directory rather than from a cache copy. See plugin caching for how orphaned versions are cleaned up.

~/.claude also holds data Claude Code writes as you work: transcripts, prompt history, file snapshots, caches, and logs. See application data below.

Choose the right file

Different kinds of customization live in different files. Use this table to find where a change belongs.

You want to	Edit	Scope	Reference
Give Claude project context and conventions	`CLAUDE.md`	project or global	Memory
Allow or block specific tool calls	`settings.json` `permissions` or `hooks`	project or global	Permissions, Hooks
Run a script before or after tool calls	`settings.json` `hooks`	project or global	Hooks
Set environment variables for the session	`settings.json` `env`	project or global	Settings
Keep personal overrides out of git	`settings.local.json`	project only	Settings scopes
Add a prompt or capability you invoke with `/name`	`skills/<name>/SKILL.md`	project or global	Skills
Define a specialized subagent with its own tools	`agents/*.md`	project or global	Subagents
Orchestrate many subagents from a script	`workflows/*.js`	project or global	Dynamic workflows
Connect external tools over MCP	`.mcp.json`	project only	MCP
Change how Claude formats responses	`output-styles/*.md`	project or global	Output styles

File reference

This table lists every file the explorer covers. Project-scope files live in your repo under .claude/ (or at the root for CLAUDE.md, .mcp.json, and .worktreeinclude). Global-scope files live in ~/.claude/ and apply across all projects.

Several things can override what you put in these files:

Managed settings deployed by your organization take precedence over everything, apart from the exceptions under Settings precedence
CLI flags like --permission-mode or --settings override settings.json for that session
Some environment variables take precedence over their equivalent setting, but this varies: check the environment variables reference for each one

See settings precedence for the full order.

Click a filename to open that node in the explorer above.

File	Scope	Commit	What it does	Reference
`CLAUDE.md`	Project and global	✓	Instructions loaded every session	Memory
`rules/*.md`	Project and global	✓	Topic-scoped instructions, optionally path-gated	Rules
`settings.json`	Project and global	✓	Permissions, hooks, env vars, model defaults	Settings
`settings.local.json`	Project only		Your personal overrides, gitignored when Claude Code saves a setting to it	Settings scopes
`.mcp.json`	Project only	✓	Team-shared MCP servers	MCP scopes
`.worktreeinclude`	Project only	✓	Gitignored files to copy into new worktrees	Worktrees
`skills/<name>/SKILL.md`	Project and global	✓	Reusable prompts invoked with `/name` or auto-invoked	Skills
`commands/*.md`	Project and global	✓	Single-file prompts; same mechanism as skills	Skills
`output-styles/*.md`	Project and global	✓	Custom instruction sets that adjust how Claude works	Output styles
`agents/*.md`	Project and global	✓	Subagent definitions with their own prompt and tools	Subagents
`workflows/*.js`	Project and global	✓	Dynamic workflow scripts written by Claude and saved from `/workflows`; each file becomes a `/<name>` command	Dynamic workflows
`agent-memory/<name>/`	Project and global	✓	Persistent memory for subagents	Persistent memory
`~/.claude.json`	Global only		App state, OAuth, UI toggles, personal MCP servers	Global config
`projects/<project>/memory/`	Global only		Auto memory: Claude’s notes to itself across sessions	Auto memory
`keybindings.json`	Global only		Custom keyboard shortcuts	Keybindings
`themes/*.json`	Global only		Custom color themes	Custom themes

Frontmatter fields by file

Skills, command files, subagents, output styles, and rules read their configuration from YAML frontmatter at the top of the file, and each accepts its own set of fields. This table lists the field names for each file and links to the reference that describes them.

File	Frontmatter fields	Reference
`skills/<name>/SKILL.md`	`name`, `description`, `when_to_use`, `argument-hint`, `arguments`, `disable-model-invocation`, `user-invocable`, `allowed-tools`, `disallowed-tools`, `model`, `effort`, `context`, `agent`, `background`, `hooks`, `paths`, `shell`, `metadata`, `license`, `compatibility`	Skill frontmatter
`commands/*.md`	The skill fields except `name` and `paths`	Skill frontmatter
`agents/*.md`	`name`, `description`, `tools`, `disallowedTools`, `model`, `permissionMode`, `maxTurns`, `skills`, `mcpServers`, `hooks`, `memory`, `background`, `effort`, `isolation`, `color`, `initialPrompt`, `omitClaudeMd`, `experimental`	Subagent frontmatter
`output-styles/*.md`	`name`, `description`, `keep-coding-instructions`, `force-for-plugin`	Output style frontmatter
`rules/*.md`	`paths`	Rule frontmatter

Agents shipped in a plugin honor a subset of the subagent fields.

Troubleshoot configuration

If a setting, hook, or file isn’t taking effect, see Debug your configuration for the inspection commands and a symptom-first lookup table.

Application data

Beyond the config you author, ~/.claude holds data Claude Code writes during sessions. These files are plaintext. Anything that passes through a tool is written to a transcript on disk: file contents, command output, pasted text.

Cleaned up automatically

Claude Code deletes the files in the paths below once they’re older than cleanupPeriodDays, as long as it can safely determine the retention period. The default is 30 days and the minimum is 1; setting 0 fails with a validation error. The same age cutoff applies to automatic removal of orphaned worktrees.

Path under `~/.claude/`	Contents
`projects/<project>/<session>.jsonl`	Full conversation transcript: every message, tool call, and tool result
`projects/<project>/<session>.orphaned-<timestamp>-<suffix>.jsonl`, `projects/<project>/<session>.jsonl.superseded-<timestamp>`	A previous transcript for the session that Claude Code set aside instead of overwriting or deleting it. It doesn’t appear in the session picker
`projects/<project>/<session>/subagents/`	Subagent conversation transcripts, removed with the parent session transcript when it ages out
`projects/<project>/<session>/tool-results/`	Large tool outputs spilled to separate files, and full-size copies of images that MCP tools return
`file-history/<session>/`	Pre-edit snapshots of files Claude changed, used for checkpoint restore. Holds snapshots for the 100 most recent checkpoints; snapshot files that no retained checkpoint references are deleted, except each file’s first snapshot
`plans/`	Plan files written during plan mode
`debug/`	Per-session debug logs, written while debug logging is on, such as when you start with `--debug` or run `/debug`
`paste-cache/`	Contents of large pastes
`image-cache/<session>/`	Attached images saved by Claude Code v2.1.274 and earlier. Later versions save pasted and attached images outside `~/.claude`, in an `images/` directory for each session under the temp directory that `CLAUDE_CODE_TMPDIR` controls. The sweep removes other sessions’ leftover directories here, whatever their age.
`uploads/<session>/`	Files you attach from the web or mobile app, and photos you attach from the mobile app, when messaging a Remote Control session. An attachment to a cloud session is saved in that session’s own cloud environment instead, not on your machine.
`dev-mods/<session>/`	Mods that Claude wrote during the session
`session-env/`	Per-session environment metadata
`tasks/`	Task lists written by the task tools, one directory per list
`shell-snapshots/`	Aliases, functions, and shell options captured at startup and applied by the Bash tool to each command. Removed on clean exit. The sweep clears any left after a crash.
`backups/`	Earlier versions of `~/.claude.json`, copied when Claude Code rewrites the file. Claude Code keeps the five newest, plus a copy of any version it couldn’t parse.
`feedback-bundles/`	Redacted transcript archives written by `/feedback` on third-party providers or when no Anthropic credentials are configured, for sending to your Anthropic account team
`feedback/drafts/`	Queued Claude-drafted feedback awaiting your review in `/feedback`. Swept after `cleanupPeriodDays` or 30 days, whichever is shorter. When the queue is at its 10-draft limit, Claude Code deletes the oldest draft to make room.
`usage-data/`	`report.html` and timestamped report copies written by `/insights`, plus cached per-session analysis data used to build them
`skills/.trash/`, `plugins/.trash/`	Skills and plugins that the claude.ai sync removed, such as after you turn one off on claude.ai or stop syncing. The files stay here so you can recover them until the sweep deletes them
`plugins/installed_plugins.set-aside.<date>.<hash>.json`, `plugins/installed_plugins.unreadable.<date>.<hash>.kept`	Dated copies Claude Code makes before rewriting `installed_plugins.json`: install records it dropped, and the contents of a file it couldn’t read.
`todos/`, `statsig/`, `logs/`	Legacy directories from older versions. No longer written. The sweep removes their contents and then the empty directory.

Session files in sessions/, auto memory, and Claude Desktop and Cowork transcripts each follow their own retention rule:

sessions/: holds one small file per running session, used to detect concurrent sessions and crashes. It isn’t part of the age-based sweep: Claude Code removes each file when its session exits and clears crash leftovers on the next launch.
Auto memory: the sweep doesn’t delete the memory files in a project’s auto memory directory, projects/<project>/memory/. Claude Code removes that directory only if it has been empty for the whole retention period. Before v2.1.228, the sweep treated folders inside the memory directory as session data and could delete old files beneath it.
Claude Desktop and Cowork transcripts: Claude Code keeps the transcript of a session you started or most recently continued in Claude Desktop or Cowork at any age. To give these transcripts an age limit, set desktopSessionCleanupPeriodDays. When managed settings set cleanupPeriodDays, Claude Code deletes these transcripts after that period instead. Requires Claude Code v2.1.248 or later; earlier versions delete them after cleanupPeriodDays.

Claude Code skips the age-based sweep in these cases:

Bare mode: when you run claude -p with --bare, Claude Code doesn’t run the sweep in that session.
Paused sweep: if Claude Code can’t safely determine the retention period, it pauses the retention cleanup sweep; the retention_sweep event lists each configuration that pauses it. When the cause is a settings file that can’t be read or parsed, or settings errors with cleanupPeriodDays or desktopSessionCleanupPeriodDays explicitly set, Claude Code also shows a warning in /status until you fix the settings errors. When managed settings provide cleanupPeriodDays, Claude Code runs the sweep at the managed value in either case.

Session scratchpad directory

The scratchpad is a per-session directory that Claude Code gives Claude for temporary files: intermediate results, helper scripts, and drafts that don’t belong in your project. When Claude says it saved something “to the scratchpad”, the file is there. Claude uses it instead of /tmp, and can create, edit, and read files in it without a permission prompt. The scratchpad lives under Claude Code’s temp directory rather than ~/.claude. Find the current session’s path for your platform:

macOS: /private/tmp/claude-<uid>/<project>/<session-id>/scratchpad/
Linux: /tmp/claude-<uid>/<project>/<session-id>/scratchpad/, or the same shape under $TMPDIR when your system sets one
Windows: %TEMP%\claude\<project>\<session-id>\scratchpad\

<project> is your working directory path with every character other than letters and digits replaced by -, such as -Users-you-my-project. If you set CLAUDE_CODE_TMPDIR, the tree moves under that directory instead. Hooks receive the current session’s path as scratchpad_dir. Scratchpad files last as long as the session’s transcript: the retention sweep deletes the directory when it deletes the transcript, and claude project purge doesn’t touch the temp directory. Because the directory sits under the system temp location, your operating system can also clear it, such as on restart. To keep something Claude wrote there, ask Claude to move it into your project. A session has a scratchpad only when all of these hold:

You’re signed in with a claude.ai account rather than an API key
The session uses the Anthropic API, not Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Agent Platform, or Microsoft Foundry
enableArtifact isn’t set to false

Kept until you delete them

The retention cleanup sweep doesn’t remove the paths below. Claude Code keeps them until you delete them, apart from the two caches it deletes when you log out.

Path under `~/.claude/`	Contents
`history.jsonl`	Every prompt you’ve typed, with timestamp and project path. Used for up-arrow recall, `Ctrl+R` history search, and `!` shell-command completion.
`stats-cache.json`	Aggregated token and cost counts shown by `/usage`
`remote-settings.json`	Cached copy of server-managed settings for your organization, or `{}` when your organization has configured none. Only present when the session fetches them. Claude Code checks for updates at startup and hourly during a session. Claude Code deletes it when you log out.
`cache/changelog.md`	Cached copy of the Claude Code changelog, shown by `/release-notes`. Refreshed in the background.
`policy-limits.json`	Cached feature policy settings for your organization. Only present for some account types. Refreshed automatically. A `policy-limits.json.stamp.json` sidecar records which account or API key the cache belongs to. Claude Code deletes both files when you log out.

Other files appear depending on which features you use. Caches and lock files are safe to delete. Keep these state files:

.credentials.json: your login credentials
agent-memory/: subagent memory
jobs/ and daemon/: background session state

Plaintext storage

Transcripts and history are not encrypted at rest. OS file permissions are the only protection. If a tool reads a .env file or a command prints a credential, that value is written to projects/<project>/<session>.jsonl. To reduce exposure:

Lower cleanupPeriodDays to shorten how long Claude Code keeps transcripts
Set desktopSessionCleanupPeriodDays to give Claude Desktop and Cowork transcripts an age limit too
Set the CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_PROMPT_HISTORY environment variable to skip writing transcripts and prompt history in any mode. In non-interactive mode, you can instead pass --no-session-persistence alongside -p, or set persistSession: false in the TypeScript Agent SDK; the Python SDK has no equivalent option.
Use permission rules to deny reads of credential files

Clear local data

Run claude project purge to delete the state Claude Code holds for one project. It deletes:

Transcripts and auto memory under projects/
Per-session tasks/, debug/, and file-history/ entries
Matching prompt lines in history.jsonl
The project’s entry in ~/.claude.json

Images you pasted or attached in the project’s sessions and each session’s scratchpad are stored under Claude Code’s temp directory rather than ~/.claude, so the purge doesn’t remove them. The retention sweep still deletes the images once they’re older than cleanupPeriodDays; a purged session’s scratchpad stays until you delete it or your operating system clears the temp directory. The command prints the full deletion plan and asks for confirmation before removing anything. The examples below use ~/work/my-repo as a placeholder. Replace it with the path to your project. If no state matches the path, the command prints an error and exits with status 1. Preview the plan without deleting anything:

claude project purge ~/work/my-repo --dry-run

The plan lists each matching item and why it is included:

Purge plan for /home/user/work/my-repo:

  dir:    /home/user/.claude/projects/-home-user-work-my-repo
           project transcripts (.jsonl) and memory/
  config: projects["/home/user/work/my-repo"]
           project entry in ~/.claude.json (trust, history, MCP servers)
  filter: /home/user/.claude/history.jsonl
           12 prompt(s) typed in this project

shell-snapshots/ are not project-scoped and will not be touched
backups/ may still contain this project entry in old .claude.json snapshots (/home/user/.claude/backups); at most 5 are kept and they rotate out automatically
Dry run: 3 item(s) would be deleted.

Delete with a single confirmation prompt:

claude project purge ~/work/my-repo

The command prints the same plan, then asks Delete 3 item(s) for /home/user/work/my-repo? This cannot be undone. [y/N] and deletes only if you answer y. Omit the path to pick a project from an interactive list. Skip the confirmation prompt for use in scripts:

claude project purge ~/work/my-repo --yes

Pass --all instead of a path to purge state for every project at once, which deletes history.jsonl outright rather than filtering it. Pass -i to step through the deletion plan one item at a time. The command leaves shell-snapshots/ and backups/ alone because those are not project-scoped, and warns about them in the plan output. You can also delete any of the application-data paths above by hand, apart from the state files to keep. New sessions are unaffected. The table below shows what you lose for past sessions.

Delete	You lose
`~/.claude/projects/`	Resume, continue, and rewind for past sessions, and auto memory for every project
`~/.claude/history.jsonl`	Up-arrow prompt recall, `Ctrl+R` history search, and `!` shell-command completion
`~/.claude/paste-cache/`	Pasted text in recalled prompts; see paste large content
`~/.claude/uploads/`	Attachments that past Remote Control sessions refer to by path
`~/.claude/file-history/`	Checkpoint restore for past sessions
`~/.claude/stats-cache.json`	Historical totals shown by `/usage`
`~/.claude/usage-data/`	Past `/insights` reports and the cached analysis data used to build them
`~/.claude/feedback-bundles/`	Feedback and bug-report archives you haven’t yet sent to your Anthropic account team
`~/.claude/feedback/drafts/`	Claude-drafted feedback you haven’t sent
`~/.claude/remote-settings.json`	Nothing. Re-fetched on next launch.
`~/.claude/cache/changelog.md`	Nothing. Refreshed in the background.
`~/.claude/policy-limits.json`	Nothing. Refreshed automatically.
`~/.claude/tasks/`	Task lists that a resumed session would pick up
`~/.claude/skills/.trash/`, `~/.claude/plugins/.trash/`	The chance to recover synced skills and synced plugins that Claude Code removed
`~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.set-aside.<date>.<hash>.json`, `~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.unreadable.<date>.<hash>.kept`	The copies of plugin install records that Claude Code dropped or couldn’t read. Nothing reads them back
`~/.claude/debug/`, `~/.claude/plans/`, `~/.claude/session-env/`, `~/.claude/shell-snapshots/`, `~/.claude/backups/`	Nothing user-facing
`~/.claude/todos/`, `~/.claude/statsig/`, `~/.claude/logs/`, `~/.claude/image-cache/`	Nothing. Legacy directories not written by current versions.

Don’t delete ~/.claude.json, ~/.claude/settings.json, or ~/.claude/plugins/: those hold your auth, preferences, and installed plugins.

Manage Claude’s memory: write and organize CLAUDE.md, rules, and auto memory
Configure settings: set permissions, hooks, environment variables, and model defaults
Create skills: build reusable prompts and workflows
Configure subagents: define specialized agents with their own context

Getting started

Core concepts

Use Claude Code

Platforms and integrations

Explore the .claude directory

Explore the directory

What’s not shown

Choose the right file

File reference

Frontmatter fields by file

Troubleshoot configuration

Application data

Cleaned up automatically

Session scratchpad directory

Kept until you delete them

Plaintext storage

Clear local data

​Explore the directory

​What’s not shown

​Choose the right file

​File reference

​Frontmatter fields by file

​Troubleshoot configuration

​Application data

​Cleaned up automatically

​Session scratchpad directory

​Kept until you delete them

​Plaintext storage

​Clear local data

​Related resources

Explore the directory

What’s not shown

Choose the right file

File reference

Frontmatter fields by file

Troubleshoot configuration

Application data

Cleaned up automatically

Session scratchpad directory

Kept until you delete them

Plaintext storage

Clear local data

Related resources