Claude Code Auto-Deletes Local Sessions After 30 Days
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- Anthropic stores Claude Code session transcripts locally in plaintext under
~/.claude/projects/for 30 days by default to enable session resumption, with the period adjustable via thecleanupPeriodDayssetting. - Consumer users on Free, Pro, and Max plans who don't allow data for model improvement receive a 30-day retention period; those who opt in are kept for 5 years, while Team and Enterprise accounts aren't used to train models by default.
- /feedback command transcripts are retained for 5 years;
/bugand/sharesubmit through the same path, and users can choose to include sessions from the current project over the last 24 hours or 7 days. - Session quality survey follow-ups that share transcripts retain them for up to 6 months, and when uploaded include conversation transcripts, subagent transcripts, and the raw session log file from disk, with known API key and token patterns redacted before upload.
- Zero Data Retention is available only for qualified Claude for Enterprise accounts and is enabled on a per-organization basis by the account team after eligibility confirmation, not included in the standard Enterprise plan.
- On Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud's Agent Platform, Microsoft Foundry, and signed-in Claude apps gateway sessions, error reporting, telemetry, and bug reporting default to disabled, and
/feedbackwrites reports to a local archive under~/.claude/feedback-bundles/instead of sending to Anthropic.
Why it matters: The 30-day local retention default is the most user-facing detail, but the real divergence is between consumer tiers: opting into model training extends retention from 30 days to 5 years. Developers running Claude Code through Bedrock, Google Cloud Agent Platform, or Microsoft Foundry get a meaningfully different posture — default-off telemetry and locally-staged feedback bundles — which changes how security-sensitive teams should evaluate provider choice.
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