Guides3 field reports
Where your AI tools keep your data
Exact paths, real sizes, and the safe way to clean up or back up — written from hands-on inspection, with sources.
- 01Where Claude Code stores your chats — and why they disappear after 30 daysClaude Code keeps every session as a plaintext JSONL file under ~/.claude/projects and deletes it after cleanupPeriodDays (30 by default). Here's how to see the size, keep history longer, and back it up safely.6 min read
- 02Why VS Code Copilot Chat can quietly use 25 GB+ of diskCopilot Chat sessions live in VS Code's workspaceStorage folder, one directory per workspace, and they're never cleaned up. How to measure them, find the project they belong to, and clear them without breaking VS Code.5 min read
- 03~/.codex/sessions is huge: what's in it and how to clean it safelyCodex writes every run to a rollout JSONL file and never prunes them — some users report hundreds of gigabytes. What the files are, what indexes them, and how to reclaim space without orphaning threads.5 min read