Exporting the history
Produce a JSON or Markdown file from a conversation, knowing the ceilings applied and how the file declares what was left out.
The conversation history browser lets you export a conversation to a file, so that it leaves the application in something you can keep, review or version.
Formats
Before exporting, you choose the format:
- JSON — the structured document, with the messages and content blocks. It is the format that preserves the structure.
- Markdown — readable text, for reading and for pasting elsewhere.
The export is made from the available session: you choose the file destination, and you can cancel that choice before writing.
The document declares its own limits
The exported document is versioned and identified as Elyra, schema 1. It has explicit ceilings, and they are worth knowing because they explain a file that looks incomplete:
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Messages | 500 |
| Content blocks per message | 64 |
| Text per part | 256 KiB |
| Total size | 16 MiB |
| Structure depth | 32 |
| Total nodes | 10,000 |
| String size | 4,096 |
| URL size | 2,048 |
| Encoded attachment bytes | 1 MiB |
What was left out is written down
The design point that matters most here: the document carries a list of omissions, and each one says what was left out and why, classified as:
- missing artifact — the reference points to something no longer there;
- excluded part — the content was left out by the ceiling;
- redacted secret — the data was removed on purpose;
- unsupported part — the format cannot represent it.
This is deliberate. A history file truncated in silence lies about what the conversation contained; a file that declares the omissions lets you know what is not there. For the same reason, the document exports the structure with the messages and the recorded usage, and does not reduce the export to a success boolean.
Care with the content
Conversation history can contain sensitive data: paths, code snippets, client names, credentials that appeared in the text, internal decisions. Two practical consequences:
- Choose the destination carefully. The file goes wherever you send it, and from then on it is no longer protected by the application.
- The export can be truncated by the ceilings above — and in that case the omission list is the part of the file you need to read first.
Limits worth knowing now
- Availability depends on the provider. The export uses the same port as the history catalogue, available for Claude, Codex, OpenCode and Grok.