| name | read-claude-web-conversation |
| description | Read or export the COMPLETE transcript of a Claude.ai web conversation — both private claude.ai/chat/... and public claude.ai/share/... links — by calling Claude.ai's internal API from inside the user's logged-in Chrome, and download its FILES too (uploads, deliverables). Use whenever the user pastes a claude.ai conversation or share link and asks to read, summarize, export, archive, or extract it — "read this Claude conversation", "导出这个网页版对话", "把这个对话拉到本地". Every naive approach fails SILENTLY: curl/WebFetch hit a Cloudflare challenge; get_page_text sees only the last message; the default API rendering collapses tool calls into placeholders (~5% of it); a share payload uses block shapes a /chat/-only renderer drops without error. Works even when the claude-in-chrome extension cannot pair (different account), via CDP or a macOS AppleScript fallback. Scope: ONLINE claude.ai. For LOCAL Claude Code sessions use read-claude-code-history; for an exported .txt/.json file use claude-export-txt-better. |
Read Claude.ai Web Conversation
Pull a Claude.ai web conversation into a full, structured transcript — every
message and every tool call, not just what is currently on screen.
Verified against Claude.ai's web API as of July 2026. These are the same private
JSON endpoints the Claude.ai front-end calls; they are not a documented or
version-stable public API, so if a request 404s, re-derive the shape from the
Network tab (see references/claude-web-api-extraction.md).
This skill vs. its siblings
Pick by the source you are holding, not by the word "conversation":
| Source | Use |
|---|
A live claude.ai/chat/… or claude.ai/share/… URL | This skill |
Local Claude Code sessions (~/.claude/projects/*.jsonl) | read-claude-code-history |
An already-exported .txt / .json conversation file | claude-export-txt-better |
Why the obvious approaches fail (read this first)
Four traps, and every one of them fails silently — you get back something
that looks like a complete export, and you only notice the loss if you happen to
know how long the conversation really was. Assume you are being lied to by
default; the fidelity gate in Step 4 exists to make the lies audible.
- Login wall.
curl and WebFetch don't get an auth redirect — they get a
Cloudflare challenge page (HTTP 403, Just a moment...). Nothing you do to
the headers fixes this; the page is gated on a session that lives in the
user's Chrome. Never reach for curl here, not even to "just check".
- Virtual scrolling. With the conversation open,
get_page_text and DOM
scraping still only see the handful of messages currently rendered — often
just the last one. A 40-message thread comes back as 1.
- Default rendering collapses the tool calls. The API's default rendering
turns every tool call into a "not supported on your current device"
placeholder. On a research/agent conversation the tool blocks ARE the content:
measured on a real one, the default rendering returned 9.4k chars against
173k with
render_all_tools=true — 5%. Always request the full rendering.
- A /chat/-shaped renderer silently drops /share/ blocks. A share payload
returns web_search hits as
knowledge items, not text items. A renderer
that only knows text returns the empty string for them and reports no error —
the same real conversation rendered to 8k chars instead of 146k (4.8%
retention) and looked completely fine.
The reliable path: run JavaScript inside the user's logged-in page and let
fetch inherit the session cookie, then render locally through the fidelity gate.
Step 0 — Choose an injection channel
Three channels can execute JS inside the user's page. They differ only in
plumbing, and each fails in its own way, so pick in this order and verify
rather than assume.
| Order | Channel | Use when | Fails when |
|---|
| 1 | claude-in-chrome extension | list_connected_browsers returns a browser | Returns [] → the extension's claude.ai login ≠ the Claude Code account. This is structural — retrying, reinstalling, and switch_browser all fail. Move on immediately. |
| 2 | CDP (scripts/cdp_channel.py probe) | probe says available: true — then it is the best channel there is | Usually unavailable, and that is normal, not a malfunction — see below. Probe is cheap; believe its answer and move on. |
| 3 | AppleScript (macOS only) | The realistic fallback when the extension can't pair | See the routing trap below — check for it BEFORE blaming the user |
| ✗ | curl / WebFetch | never | Cloudflare 403. There is no header that fixes it. |
⚠️ Expect CDP to be unavailable, and never try to force it. Since Chrome 136
(April 2025) the debugging port is ignored on the default user-data-dir — a
deliberate hardening against malware that used CDP to steal cookies. You may still
find a listening socket and a stale DevToolsActivePort on disk while the
WebSocket handshake is never answered and /json/* returns 404.
And its availability flaps. Verified on Chrome 150, one machine, one browser
session: the endpoint worked, then stopped answering entirely, then answered again
— with no restart in between. So probe every time and never cache the verdict.
"CDP worked five minutes ago" is not evidence that it works now, and "CDP failed
once" is not evidence that this machine can't use it. The probe is cheap precisely
so you can afford to re-ask.
The trap is what you'll be tempted to do next. Every fix on the web says "relaunch
Chrome with --user-data-dir=/tmp/whatever". For this skill that is worse than
useless: a fresh profile is signed out, and a signed-out browser cannot read a
single one of the user's conversations. The session you need lives in precisely
the profile Chrome is refusing to expose. So probe, take the answer, and fall
back — never reconfigure or relaunch the user's browser to chase a port.
CDP does work when Chrome was deliberately started on a non-default
--user-data-dir and is signed into claude.ai. That happens, and when it does
this channel beats the others outright (no menu toggle, immune to the Apple Events
capture below, enumerates every tab, returns the whole payload on stdout). That is
why it is worth one cheap probe before falling through.
To try channel 1, load the extension's tools in a single ToolSearch call
(they are deferred; the API path needs no get_page_text / read_page):
ToolSearch: select:mcp__claude-in-chrome__tabs_context_mcp,mcp__claude-in-chrome__navigate,mcp__claude-in-chrome__javascript_tool
then call list_connected_browsers. An empty list is the account mismatch — go to
channel 2 rather than retrying.
To try channel 2:
uv run --with websockets python scripts/cdp_channel.py probe
probe answers three questions at once: is CDP available, is it pointed at the
user's real browser (page count, and any claude.ai tabs already open), and are
there multiple Chrome instances running. Its output drives everything below —
including the AppleScript decision, since the chrome_instances.automation list is
what tells you whether Apple Events will even reach the right browser.
Exit codes are a contract, so you never have to guess whether to fall back:
| code | meaning | what to do |
|---|
| 0 | worked | continue |
| 1 | bad input (unreadable --js, etc.) | fix the call |
| 2 | TAB_NOT_FOUND | use open, or ask the user to open the page |
| 3 | CDP unusable | fall back to another channel — this is the normal outcome |
| 4 | the browser answered with an error | the command was wrong, or the tab vanished mid-call; falling back won't help |
Exit 3 still prints chrome_instances, because that part needs no debugging port.
It is a routing fact, not an error: read it, fall through to channel 3, and say
nothing to the user about debugging ports.
The AppleScript routing trap (read before you blame the user)
AppleScript addresses Chrome by bundle id. If a second Chrome instance is
running — chrome-devtools-mcp, puppeteer, playwright, anything launched with its
own --user-data-dir — Apple Events can land on that instance instead, and
macOS gives you no way to target the first one by pid. There is no workaround.
What makes this genuinely dangerous is how it presents: the automation profile
has "Allow JavaScript from Apple Events" switched off, so your JS attempt fails
with "Executing JavaScript through AppleScript is turned off" — and you will
conclude the user forgot a menu toggle, and go ask them to flip it, while their
real browser had it enabled the whole time. Observed exactly this: AppleScript
reported windows=1 tabs=1 while the user's actual Chrome had 35 tabs open.
So before falling back to AppleScript, run probe (or chrome_instances() from
cdp_channel.py) and read the automation list. If it is non-empty, say so
plainly — "an automation Chrome is holding the Apple Events route, so
AppleScript will hit the wrong browser" — and either use CDP, or ask whether
that instance can be closed. Do not relay a toggle error you cannot attribute.
Channel details and the base64 binary bridge: references/applescript_fallback_channel.md.
Step 1 — Identify the account case (this decides what you can even get)
How much of the conversation exists for you to fetch depends on whose account
the browser is signed into. Establish this early — it is the difference between
a complete archive and one with unrecoverable holes, and the user deserves to
know which they are getting before you hand it over.
| Case | Signal | What you can get |
|---|
| A · Not signed in | /api/organizations returns no org | Nothing for /chat/ links. Stop and ask the user to sign into claude.ai in Chrome — never automate a login. |
| B · Signed in, conversation belongs to this account | GET .../chat_conversations/<conversation-id> returns 200 | Everything, including the content of uploaded attachments. Prefer this path whenever it is available. |
| C · Signed in, but it's someone else's share link | the conversation fetch 404s; the snapshot's creator ≠ this account | The snapshot only. The platform strips the arguments and results of every tool call that touched the sharer's uploads. Unrecoverable from that link. |
For a /share/… link, the snapshot payload itself tells you which case you're
in: it carries conversation_uuid (the original) and creator. So fetch the
snapshot first, then try the original with that conversation_uuid — if it
200s you are in case B and should re-export from there, because the snapshot is
strictly lossier. If it 404s, you are in case C: say so out loud, and let the
render step disclose the gaps in the transcript header (it does this on its own).
Case C's holes are real and worth naming precisely, because they look like a bug
in your export when they are not: a view of an uploaded file keeps its name but
loses its path and the file's entire content. The user's own copy of that file
is usually sitting on their disk — the export isn't broken, it just cannot speak
for a file the platform declined to share.
Step 2 — Open the conversation
Extension: tabs_context_mcp with { "createIfEmpty": true }, then navigate.
CDP: cdp_channel.py open --url <url> (reuses an existing tab; waits out the
Cloudflare interstitial, which the browser clears by itself).
Either way, confirm it actually loaded and is logged in — the tab title should be
the conversation's name, not "Log in". If you land on a login page, stop and tell
the user; do not automate a login.
Step 3 — Fetch the payload
Always request the full tool rendering. Without render_all_tools=true you
get placeholders where the analysis was (trap 3 above).
| Link type | Endpoint |
|---|
/chat/<conversation-id> | GET /api/organizations/<org-uuid>/chat_conversations/<conversation-id>?tree=True&rendering_mode=messages&render_all_tools=true |
/share/<snapshot-id> | GET /api/chat_snapshots/<snapshot-id>?rendering_mode=messages&render_all_tools=true |
Note the share endpoint keys on the snapshot id from the URL, which is not
the conversation id — feeding a snapshot id to chat_conversations 404s, and that
404 means "wrong id", not "you lack access". Both id families are opaque; always
derive them from the open URL rather than hard-coding.
For a plain chat with no tool calls, where you just need the text right now, the
inline snippet in references/claude-web-api-extraction.md
assembles a transcript in-page in a single call.
Step 4 — Render locally, through the fidelity gate
uv run python scripts/render_transcript.py conversation.json -o transcript.md \
--source-url <url>
This handles both payload shapes (/chat/ and /share/), renders every tool
call, folds tool outputs into <details>, and collects web_search citations into
a "Sources cited" list.
It also refuses to write a lossy transcript. Before emitting anything it
audits every block — this block carried N characters; did the renderer emit
anything at all for it? — and exits 2 if any block carried text and produced
nothing. That is the trap-4 failure, and it is invisible without this check: the
markdown looks clean, the exit code is 0, and 95% of the conversation is gone.
The budget is measured off the raw payload, deliberately not through the
rendering path, because a gate that asks the parser how much there was to render
can only ever confirm the parser's own blind spots.
If it fails, it names the offending block and the command to inspect it: teach
result_item_text()/render_block() the new shape. Reach for --allow-lossy
only when you have consciously decided the loss is acceptable — it is almost
never the right answer, and it is never the right first answer.
Blocks the platform emptied (case C) are counted separately as a disclosed
gap, never as loss, and are announced in the transcript header. A clean run
prints its own accounting:
fidelity: 143,088/143,088 chars rendered (100.0%)
known gap: 12 tool blocks were emptied by the platform (view) — disclosed in the
transcript header, NOT recoverable from a shared link
The gate audits per item, not per block — items are the granularity content
actually gets lost at, and a per-block check credited a whole block as rendered
whenever any part of it came out, so a vanished 38k-char item hid behind a
16-char sibling and scored 100%. It also covers what a content[]-only audit
structurally cannot see: message-level attachment bodies (a pasted document
lives there, not in a block), the top-level text, and messages the active-path
walk never reached. And a payload with nothing in it scores 0%, not 100% — an
empty fetch is the limit case of the very loss this gate exists for.
If you change the renderer, run the regression suite. Every case in it is a
shape that fooled a previous version of the gate:
uv run python scripts/selftest_fidelity.py
Output format and navigation (--toc)
The default output format is Obsidian because Obsidian's Live Preview does not
render HTML <details>, so the collapsible tool outputs, thinking, and file bodies
would otherwise land as flat noise. The default rewrites each <details> block as a
native > [!info]- collapsible callout:
uv run python scripts/render_transcript.py conversation.json -o transcript.md \
--source-url <url> --toc
Use --format markdown if you need the older HTML <details> output instead.
The conversion runs only after the fidelity gate has passed on the <details>
markdown — it is a cosmetic post-pass that touches no payload string, so it can never
affect the retention proof (don't move it before the gate). --toc prepends a linked
table of contents and inserts per-message anchors (<a id="turn-N">) so long
conversations are navigable. --extract-file output is never reformatted.
Other modes, unchanged: --list-files inventories every downloadable file with
the endpoint family each needs; --extract-file <sandbox-path> reconstructs a
sandbox-created file by replaying its create_file plus every later
str_replace, and refuses to emit anything if a replacement is missing or
ambiguous rather than handing back stale content.
Completion check — render is not done while files remain
render_transcript.py prints two lines to stderr when it writes a transcript.
Read both before declaring the render finished:
fidelity: 143,088/143,088 chars rendered (100.0%) across 7 message(s)
files: 2 downloadable file(s) in this conversation — the transcript names them but does NOT carry the bytes, so a text-only export is an INCOMPLETE archive. ...
The fidelity: line is the retention proof. The files: line is the
completion signal: if it reports any files, the transcript references them
by name but does not contain their bytes — a text-only export is an incomplete
archive. The whole reason this line lives on the same stderr stream as
fidelity: is that completion-drive otherwise sees 100% and stops before the
files are pulled, which is exactly how a text export gets mistaken for a full
archive. (No files: line at all means the conversation carries no downloadable
files; the render is genuinely complete on its own.)
So when files: reports N > 0, downloading them is part of this step, not an
optional follow-up. A user who said "archive / export / 拉到本地" asked for a
complete archive; handing them the transcript while the files it references sit
un-downloaded is handing them an incomplete one. (--list-files / --extract-file
never print this notice — they return before the render branch.)
Use scripts/download_files.js to inventory and pull
every upload, assistant image, and sandbox deliverable through the correct
endpoint family. The script is channel-agnostic JS; run it through the same
channel you fetched with. CDP (one call, result on stdout):
uv run --with websockets python scripts/cdp_channel.py eval \
--match <conversation-or-snapshot-id> --js scripts/download_files.js
echo "window.__dlStatus" > /tmp/check_dl.js
uv run --with websockets python scripts/cdp_channel.py eval \
--match <conversation-or-snapshot-id> --js /tmp/check_dl.js
echo "window.__dl['filename.png']" > /tmp/read_one.js
uv run --with websockets python scripts/cdp_channel.py eval \
--match <conversation-or-snapshot-id> --js /tmp/read_one.js 2>/dev/null \
| tr -d '\n' | base64 -d > filename.png
AppleScript channel — the realistic fallback when CDP is unavailable (Step 0 says
CDP is usually ignored on the default profile), so it gets a worked example too,
not just a swap pointer:
osascript scripts/runjs.applescript scripts/download_files.js <conversation-id>
echo "window.__dlStatus" > /tmp/check_dl.js
osascript scripts/runjs.applescript /tmp/check_dl.js <conversation-id>
echo "window.__dl['filename.png']" > /tmp/read_one.js
osascript scripts/runjs.applescript /tmp/read_one.js <conversation-id> \
2>/dev/null | tr -d '\n' | base64 -d > filename.png
Extension channel: run the script body via javascript_tool and page window.__dl
out in ~16k slices, like any other large return.
Verify each file with file <name> (magic bytes — expect PNG image data,
Microsoft Excel 2007+, not ASCII text) and compare its byte size against the
metadata in the conversation JSON (files[].size_bytes for uploads; the status
line from download_files.js for deliverables). Save downloads next to the
transcript — conventionally a sibling <transcript-basename>_附件/ directory —
and repoint the transcript's image references at the local copies.
Step 5 — Paging (extension channel only)
javascript_tool truncates large return values. Fetch the chars count first,
then re-run returning later windows — keep the fetch identical and change only
the final expression:
transcript.slice(14000, 32000);
Prefer ~14–18k windows; larger risks hitting the limit again. The CDP and
AppleScript channels don't need any of this — both return the whole payload on
stdout, which is a good reason to prefer them for a large archival export.
Gotchas
sender values are 'human' and 'assistant' (not 'user'/'claude').- A message can have
m.text AND m.content[] at the same time. Agent turns
often carry the final answer in m.text plus thinking/tool_use/tool_result
blocks in content[]. Build from content[] first and fold in m.text — never
m.text || (content…), which short-circuits and drops every block whenever
m.text is set. If a message renders blank, inspect one raw:
Object.keys(msgs[0]) and msgs[0].content?.map(b => b.type).
- A
/share/ payload is shaped differently from /chat/. name is null (the
title is in snapshot_name); web_search results are knowledge items
(title/url/text), not text items; and citations hang off the text
blocks. The bundled renderer handles all three — a hand-rolled one usually
doesn't, which is trap 4.
- Empty
input: {} / content: [] on a tool block is not a bug — on a share
snapshot it is the platform withholding the sharer's private file contents. Say
so; don't render it as a mysterious no-op, and don't count it as data loss.
- If
rendering_mode=raw returns empty or short bodies, retry with
rendering_mode=messages. The two expose slightly different fields.
- The conversation's files are downloadable too — uploads, and the deliverables
behind Download cards. Two endpoint families, keyed differently (images by uuid;
uploads/outputs by sandbox path via
conversations/<id>/wiggle/download-file).
uuid-guessing 404s for uploads, which looks like — but is not — "unsupported".
scripts/download_files.js inventories the
conversation and pulls each through the right endpoint. Don't conclude anything
is unavailable before trying it.
Full endpoint table, response schema field-by-field, the complete export script,
and a troubleshooting table: references/claude-web-api-extraction.md.
Next Step
Once the transcript is written and its files are downloaded — the files:
stderr line from Step 4's Completion check is what tells you whether there were
any, and a text-only export stays incomplete while that count is non-zero —
suggest the natural follow-up. Opt-in, never automatic:
Got the full conversation (<N> messages, "<title>", <retention>% fidelity);
<N> files downloaded to <dir>.
Options:
A) Clean it up — run transcript-fixer if it's ASR/garbled (only if relevant)
B) Summarize / extract the decisions and action items
C) Save it to a file — tell me where
D) Nothing else — you just needed it read
