| name | Backup Transcripts |
| description | This skill should be used when the user asks to "backup transcripts", "archive sessions", "save session history", "backup before Claude deletes", "preserve transcripts", or mentions protecting session data from deletion. |
Backup Claude Code Transcripts
Archive all Claude Code session transcripts as gzip files before Claude Code deletes them. Transcripts are ephemeral — Claude Code periodically cleans up old .jsonl files. This skill preserves them in ~/.crispy/recall/archive/.
When to Use
- Before any operation that might lose transcript data
- Periodically to ensure new sessions are backed up
- When the user mentions transcript preservation or data loss concerns
Usage
${SKILL_ROOT}/scripts/backup-transcripts.sh
What It Does
- Scans all
.jsonl transcripts in ~/.claude/projects/
- Compresses each to
~/.crispy/recall/archive/<project>__<session>.jsonl.gz
- Skips files already archived (idempotent — safe to run repeatedly)
- Reports counts: new, skipped, errors, total archive size
Notes
- Compressed transcripts achieve 85-95% size reduction (JSONL is highly compressible)
- Archives are named
<project-hash>__<session-uuid>.jsonl.gz for uniqueness
- The archive survives even after Claude Code deletes the originals
- Future: these archives will feed a deep-index FTS5 search (see
recall-coverage-gaps.md)
