Claude Code Assist

Note: This is an unofficial extension and is not made by or affiliated with Anthropic.

A powerful VS Code extension that enhances your development workflow with Claude Code integration. Browse chat history, review file changes, apply modifications from previous sessions, and manage your coding workflow with comprehensive history visualization.

✅ Cross-Platform Support: Works seamlessly on macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux. macOS compatibility fixed in v0.2.1 - no more native module errors!

🎬 Feature Demos

📚 Chat History & Diff Viewer

Browse your Claude Code sessions with GitHub-style diffs and one-click file changes.

🔍 Full-Text Search

Search across all conversations with instant results and session-grouped display.

📊 Usage Analytics

Track costs, tokens, and usage patterns with comprehensive analytics dashboard.

⏱️ File History Timeline

View complete modification history for any file across all your sessions.

📄 Export to Markdown

Export conversations and plans to beautifully formatted Markdown files.

📋 Plan View & Management

Browse, view, and manage your Claude Code plans from ~/.claude/plans/ directory.

🔀 Session Fork & Resume

Branch conversations and resume from any point in your chat history.

🌟 Features

Smart Session Organization

• Sidepanel Interface: Clean, intuitive sidebar panel for browsing chat sessions
• Project-Based Filtering: Automatically organizes sessions by project with smart current-project detection
• Session Pinning: Pin important sessions to keep them at the top of your list for quick access
• Custom Session Titles: Rename sessions with custom titles to better organize your work
• Latest Chat Priority: Recent conversations are highlighted and easily accessible
• Auto-Refresh: Automatically updates recent sessions (configurable time window)
• Session Resume: Resume any past conversation directly in your terminal with one click, or copy the command to use elsewhere
• Session Fork: Create a new conversation starting from any message - perfect for exploring alternative approaches without losing your original chat. Enhanced with better summaries and automatic token count estimation
• Markdown Export: Export full sessions to beautifully formatted Markdown files with customizable metadata options for sharing, documentation, or archival
• Enhanced Message Display: Beautiful formatting for command outputs, code snippets, and tool results with GitHub-style views. Full support for agent and task tool operations
• Smart Session Titles: Automatically extracts meaningful titles from your conversations with improved extraction from recent chat summaries
• Advanced Tool Visualization: Improved rendering of tool results including Bash outputs, file operations, and agent-based task execution
• Session Management Commands: Comprehensive commands for renaming sessions, managing custom titles, and toggling pin status

Plan View & Management

• Plan Browser: Browse all your Claude Code plans from ~/.claude/plans/ directory in a dedicated interface
• Plan Navigation: Easily navigate between different plans with a clean, organized view
• Plan Actions: Copy plan content to clipboard, export to Markdown, or open in VS Code editor
• Plan Export: Export individual plans to beautifully formatted Markdown files

Advanced File Change Tracking

• GitHub-Style Diffs: Beautiful, readable diff views showing exactly what changed
• Multi-Diff Support: View changes across multiple files simultaneously
• Native VS Code Integration: Leverages VS Code's built-in diff viewer
• Apply Changes: One-click application of changes to your current workspace
• File Operations: Track Read, Write, Edit, and MultiEdit operations from Claude Code

Powerful Search & Navigation

• SQLite-Based Search: High-performance full-text search with SQLite backend for superior speed and accuracy
• Session-Grouped Results: Search results are organized by session with collapsible groups, showing all matches within each conversation for easier navigation
• Improved Search Performance: Faster and more accurate search results with optimized indexing and query processing
• Advanced Database Indexing: Persistent search index with incremental updates and file change tracking
• Smart Query Processing: Intelligent search with relevance scoring, context awareness, and file-based filtering
• Search Highlighting: Visual highlighting of search terms in results with enhanced preview generation
• Session File Paths: Search results now display session file paths for easier identification and navigation
• Session Navigation: Jump directly to specific conversations with improved metadata tracking
• File History Timeline: See complete modification history for any file across all your sessions. Visual timeline shows when files were changed, what operations were performed, and provides quick access to view diffs or navigate to the conversation
• Right-Click Context Menu: Right-click any file in the explorer or editor to select "Show in Claude History Timeline" and instantly view its modification history
• Quick Access: Command palette integration for rapid access to all search features

Status Bar Navigation

• Real-Time File Monitoring: Status bar integration showing current file change status
• Quick Navigation: Navigate between file changes using keyboard shortcuts
• Loading State Indicators: Visual feedback during file operations
• Seamless Workflow: Integrated navigation without leaving your editor

📊 Advanced Analytics & Cost Tracking

• Comprehensive Cost Analysis: Detailed cost tracking with token usage breakdown for all Claude models
• Dashboard Analytics: Interactive dashboard with usage statistics, activity timelines, and cost trends
• Engagement Distribution: Visual breakdown of your usage patterns across different features and activities
• Usage Engagement Metrics: Understand your development patterns with comprehensive analytics tracking
• Session Block Tracking: Billing window identification following ccusage logic for accurate cost periods
• Token Usage Insights: Detailed tracking of input, output, cache creation, and cache read tokens
• Daily Usage Statistics: Track your daily usage patterns with activity heatmaps and efficiency metrics
• Cumulative Statistics: Persistent tracking of your extension usage over time
• Model-Specific Breakdown: Cost analysis per model with cache token optimization insights

🏆 Community Features (Optional)

• Leaderboard Integration: Optional community leaderboard with anonymous usage comparison
• User Profile Management: Create profiles with privacy controls and data sharing preferences
• Achievement System: Track coding milestones and compare with community stats
• Anonymous Analytics: Opt-in community features while maintaining complete privacy control

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• VS Code 1.80.0 or later
• Claude Code CLI installed and configured
• Existing Claude Code chat history (stored in ~/.claude/projects/)

Installation

1. Install from the VS Code Extensions marketplace
2. The extension automatically detects your Claude directory
3. Click the Claude History icon in the Activity Bar to start browsing

Quick Start

1. Open the Extension: Click the Claude History icon in VS Code's Activity Bar
2. Browse Sessions: Use the "Latest Chat" tab for recent conversations or "Chat History" for all sessions
3. View Changes: Click any session to see the conversation and file changes
4. Review Diffs: Use "File Changes" to see a commit-style summary with diffs
5. Search History: Use the powerful SQLite-based search within the extension's side panel
6. Navigate Files: Use status bar buttons or keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Shift+] / Ctrl+Shift+[) to navigate between file changes
7. Analyze Costs: Access the Dashboard tab to view detailed cost analysis and usage statistics
8. Join Community (Optional): Enable leaderboard features to compare usage with the community
9. Quick Access: Press Ctrl+Shift+Q to quickly open the Claude chat side panel

📋 Main Commands

Available in Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Context Menu Commands

Additional commands are available through right-click context menus and the extension's interface:

• Show File Diff
• Apply Changes to Workspace
• Open File in Editor
• View File Changes

⚙️ Configuration

Settings

• claude-history.claudeDirectory: Custom path to .claude directory (auto-detected if empty)
• claude-history.autoRefreshEnabled: Enable automatic refresh for recent sessions (default: true)
• claude-history.autoRefreshInterval: Time window in hours for auto-refresh (default: 2 hours)
• claude-history.enableErrorReporting: Enable anonymous error reporting for debugging (default: true)
• claude-history.contextMenu.showFileTimeline: Show "Show in Claude History Timeline" in file context menus (default: true)
• claude-history.search.maxFileSize: Maximum file size in MB for search indexing (default: 50)
• claude-history.search.maxMessagesPerFile: Maximum messages per file to process (default: 1000)
• claude-history.leaderboard.enableSharing: Enable community leaderboard data sharing (default: false)
• claude-history.dashboard.showCostBreakdown: Show detailed cost breakdown in dashboard (default: true)

Customization

Access settings via:

• File → Preferences → Settings → Extensions → Claude Code Assist
• Or search for "Claude History" in VS Code settings

🔧 Troubleshooting

🍎 macOS Compatibility

✅ Fully Supported - The extension works perfectly on all Macs including Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) and Intel processors.

Note: If you're using a version older than v0.2.1, please update to the latest version for full macOS compatibility. Earlier versions had native module issues that have been resolved with WebAssembly.

Common Issues

"No Claude directory found"

• Ensure Claude Code CLI is installed and has been used at least once
• Check that ~/.claude/projects/ directory exists
• Manually set the Claude directory in extension settings

Sessions not loading

• Click "Refresh Sessions" in the panel
• Check if your Claude directory path is correct in settings
• Verify that JSONL files exist in your Claude projects folders

Diffs not showing correctly

• Ensure the files exist in your current workspace
• The extension tries to match files by relative path from project root
• For missing files, you'll be prompted to create them

Performance issues with large history

• The extension loads sessions incrementally with intelligent caching
• Search index is automatically compressed and optimized for large datasets
• Use "Load More Sessions" to expand history as needed
• Clear project cache if experiencing slowdowns
• Rebuild search index if search performance degrades

Search not returning expected results

• Ensure SQLite search index has been built (automatic on first use)
• Try rebuilding the search index via "Refresh Sessions"
• Check search query syntax - supports full-text search with SQLite FTS
• Verify database integrity if search results are inconsistent
• Clear search cache if results seem outdated

Database-related issues

• The extension uses SQLite (WebAssembly) for improved performance and cross-platform compatibility
• Database files are stored in the extension's global storage directory
• Use "Rebuild Search Index" if experiencing database corruption
• Check file permissions if database operations fail
• v0.2.1+ uses sql.js (WASM) instead of native sqlite3 for universal compatibility

Cross-Platform Compatibility

• ✅ Windows: Fully supported (all versions)
• ✅ macOS: Fixed in v0.2.1 - works on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs
• ✅ Linux: Fully supported (all architectures)
• Single .vsix file works on all platforms - no more architecture-specific issues!

Data Privacy

• 100% Local: All core data processing happens locally on your machine
• Optional Cloud Features: Leaderboard functionality is completely optional and requires explicit opt-in
• Privacy Controls: Full control over what data (if any) is shared with community features
• Read-Only by Default: Only reads your existing Claude history files
• Workspace Integration: Only accesses your current VS Code workspace for file operations
• Anonymous Participation: Community features use anonymous device IDs, never personal information

🏗️ Architecture Overview

The extension is built with a modular architecture:

• Data Layer: JSONL parsers and SQLite database for efficient chat history processing
• Database Services: SQLite-based search, cost tracking, and analytics with comprehensive data models
• UI Layer: Modern webview panels with GitHub-style interfaces and interactive dashboards
• Services: File watching, incremental parsing, project mapping, and optional leaderboard integration
• Utilities: Advanced diff rendering, cost calculation, search indexing, and file operations
• Analytics: Comprehensive usage tracking, cost analysis, and community features (optional)

📝 Version History

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed release notes.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

📄 License

Proprietary - See LICENSE for terms

This software is proprietary and confidential. The extension is free to use but the source code is not open source.

Contact & Support

Have questions, suggestions, or want to connect? Reach out to me!

📧 Email: yashagl10@gmail.com 🐦 Twitter/X: @yashagl

I'm always happy to help with issues, discuss new features, or chat about development!

🔗 Links

• GitHub Repository
• VS Code Marketplace
• Claude Code CLI
• Twitter/X: @yashagl

Enhance your development workflow with comprehensive history visualization, file change tracking, and intelligent session management.