Claude/Code/Q/Is it possible to see the compaction text

• Is it possible to see the compaction text in Claude/Code?

  • Answer

    • Yes, it is possible to see the compaction text in Claude Code. There are several methods available.

  • Methods to View Compaction Text

    • Immediate View After Compaction

      • Use CTRL+O on some terminal setups to see the full summary immediately after running /compact
      • This displays the compaction summary right after it's generated

    • View JSONL Transcript Files

      • Claude Code stores all conversation history, including compaction summaries, as .jsonl files locally
      • Location: ~/.claude/projects/[path]/[session_id].jsonl
      • The compaction summary is saved in the logs with type:summary
      • You can open these files directly in a text editor to view the raw JSONL data
      • The original conversation is preserved with a "compact boundary" marker, so you can see both the summary and the original messages

    • Using Extraction Tools

      • claude-code-log – Converts JSONL files to readable HTML/Markdown
        • Install: pip install claude-code-log or use uvx claude-code-log
        • Features include session navigation, token usage tracking, and message filtering
        • GitHub
      • claude-code-transcripts – Generates detailed HTML pages with summaries
        • Can be run with uvx if you have the uv package manager
        • Creates shareable HTML pages with multi-page transcripts
        • Simon Willison's blog post

  • How Compaction Works

    • When you run /compact, Claude Code creates a summary of your entire conversation history
    • The summary is used as the new context for subsequent messages
    • The original conversation is not deleted – it's preserved with a "compact boundary" in the conversation file
    • This allows you to retrieve details from the original conversation if needed
    • Compaction can be triggered manually or automatically when context reaches ~95% of the 200,000 token limit