Project History under native windows install

[justSteve]

Nice start! I'm running under native windows 2.x. Everything came up for the CC scan, but the Claude Desktop only MCP Servers were populated. Project History is blank.

here's a first pass at the problem solving with CC:

supposedly this will work correctly when run from wsl. Can you find any details on how things changed between wsl and native windows installer?

I'll search for any documentation or code that explains the difference between WSL and native [snipped da tooling]

Now I understand the issue! Let me explain what's happening:
The Key Difference
When you run the script: On Native Windows:
platform.system() returns 'Windows'
Looks for Claude Desktop at: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
This file only contains MCP configs, NO project history
From WSL:
platform.system() returns 'Linux'
Looks for:
Claude Code: ~/.claude.json (in WSL home directory)
Claude Desktop: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Linux path)
Why WSL "Works"
When running from WSL, you're likely detecting Claude Code installed in WSL, not Claude Desktop. Here's what's probably happening:

server.py lines 23-30

Claude Code config

claude_code_path = Path.home() / '.claude.json' # In WSL: /home/username/.claude.json
if claude_code_path.exists():
configs['code'] = {
'path': claude_code_path,
'name': 'Claude Code (CLI)',
'type': 'code' # ← This HAS projects!
}
The Reality
Claude Desktop config files NEVER contain project history on ANY platform. They only store:
mcpServers: MCP server configurations
That's it!
Claude Code config files (.claude.json) DO contain:
mcpServers: MCP server configurations
projects: Full conversation history
numStartups: Startup count
To verify this
Run this from WSL to see which configs it detects:
python3 -c "import platform; print('Platform:', platform.system()); from pathlib import Path; print('Claude Code:', (Path.home() / '.claude.json').exists()); print('Claude Desktop:', (Path.home() / '.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json').exists())"
If you want the script to detect Windows Claude Desktop from WSL, you'd need to access it via the Windows filesystem mount:

Add WSL-aware Windows detection

if platform.system() == 'Linux' and Path('/mnt/c').exists(): # Running in WSL
win_username = os.environ.get('USER') # or parse from /mnt/c/Users
claude_desktop_path = Path(f'/mnt/c/Users/{win_username}/AppData/Roaming/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json')
But again, that file won't have projects anyway - only MCP configs!

[gagarinyury]

Hi @justSteve! Thanks for reporting this issue. I need to clarify a few things to understand what's happening on your native Windows setup.

Quick Background

Based on my research, Claude Code actually stores conversation history in a different location than I initially thought:

• .claude.json (old format) - Contains project configs and MCP servers, but NOT conversation history
• ~/.claude/projects/ directory - This is where all conversation history is actually stored (in .jsonl files)

Can you check these paths on your Windows machine?

Please run these commands in PowerShell and share the output:

# Check if .claude.json exists
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude.json"

# Check if .claude directory exists
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude"

# Check if projects directory exists
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\projects"

# If projects exists, list what's inside
Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\projects" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# Also check the size of .claude.json if it exists
(Get-Item "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude.json" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Length

My theory

I suspect that:

1. Your Claude Code is installed and working
2. The conversation history exists in C:\Users\[YourUsername]\.claude\projects\
3. But my tool is looking in the wrong place (.claude.json instead of .claude/projects/)

That's why you see MCP servers (from Claude Desktop config) but no Project History (because it's in a different location).

Does this make sense? Let me know what those commands show!

[justSteve]

Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE.claude.json"
True

-# Check if .claude directory exists
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE.claude"
True

-# Check if projects directory exists
Test-Path "$env:USERPROFILE.claude\projects"
True

-# If projects exists, list what's inside
Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE.claude\projects" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

[correctly displays dirs]

-# Also check the size of .claude.json if it exists
(Get-Item "$env:USERPROFILE.claude.json" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Length
42812

[aguyinmontreal]

same issue here

My C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.claude\projects directory is 85MB and claude-config-editor tells me I only have a 46.9 KB config file and 0 messages.