Safe Historical Search

🔍 Lightning-fast local search for ChatGPT and Claude conversation history

Export search tool • AI chat history • Privacy-first • Zero-cloud • Sub-second results • Interactive filtering

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🚀 Get Started in Under 60 Seconds

Transform your ChatGPT and Claude conversations into a searchable knowledge base instantly:

Keywords: ChatGPT export search, Claude conversation search, AI chat history, OpenAI export tool, Anthropic data search, conversation archive, AI knowledge base

💡 Works with both Claude (Anthropic) and ChatGPT (OpenAI) exports! Mix multiple accounts from both providers seamlessly.

Step 1: Export Your AI Conversations

📤 For Claude (Anthropic):

1. Visit Claude Data Export
2. Request data export → Wait for email → Download ZIP
3. Extract: conversations.json, projects.json, users.json

📤 For ChatGPT (OpenAI):

1. Visit ChatGPT Data Controls
2. Export data → Wait for email → Download ZIP
3. Extract: conversations.json, user.json, shared_conversations.json, message_feedback.json

Step 2: One-Command Setup

git clone https://github.com/t1c1/safe-historical-search.git
cd safe-historical-search
mkdir -p files
# 📁 Copy your export files into ./files/
./quickstart.sh

🌐 Opens automatically at http://127.0.0.1:5001

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✨ What Makes This Special

🎯 Interactive Search Experience

• Click any pill to filter instantly - Provider, role, or date
• Real-time results - No page refreshes, instant filtering
• Smart expand by default - Finds partial matches automatically
• Native date pickers - Intuitive calendar widgets, not confusing sliders

🔍 Conversation Context

• "Show context" on every result - See the full conversation thread
• Highlighted current message - Know exactly where you are
• Color-coded by role - Blue for human, green for AI responses
• Expandable inline - No popups or new windows

🛡️ Privacy & Security

• 100% local processing - Your data never leaves your machine
• Zero cloud dependencies - Works completely offline
• No tracking or analytics - No cookies, no external requests
• Instant deletion - Remove the index folder to wipe everything

⚡ Performance

• Sub-second search - SQLite FTS5 full-text indexing
• Handles thousands of conversations - Scales beautifully
• Minimal resource usage - <50MB RAM typical
• Cross-platform - macOS, Linux, Windows

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🎯 Real-World Use Cases

🔬 Research & Knowledge Management

Perfect for researchers, consultants, data scientists, and knowledge workers who accumulate valuable insights through ChatGPT and Claude conversations. Search your AI chat exports like a personal research database.

Example workflows:

• "Find that Python async solution from last month" → Search async python, filter by Assistant
• "All my machine learning discussions" → Search machine learning, expand context to see evolution
• "Competitor analysis from Q3" → Date filter + search competitor, see full strategic discussions

💼 Business Intelligence & Strategy

Extract patterns and insights from your AI brainstorming sessions.

Power user scenarios:

• Market research synthesis - Find all conversations about industry trends
• Product development tracking - See how feature ideas evolved over time
• Decision documentation - Locate the reasoning behind key business choices
• Team knowledge sharing - Search across multiple team members' exports

📚 Learning & Education

Students and lifelong learners can quickly retrieve educational content and build on previous learning.

Study workflows:

• Concept reinforcement - Find previous explanations of complex topics
• Problem-solving patterns - See how similar problems were approached
• Study session continuity - Pick up where previous learning sessions left off
• Cross-reference learning - Connect related concepts across different conversations

🛠️ Developer & Technical Troubleshooting

Software developers, DevOps engineers, and IT professionals can build a personal knowledge base of coding solutions from their ChatGPT and Claude conversations. Perfect for searching code snippets, debugging solutions, and technical explanations.

Developer scenarios:

• Bug fix retrieval - "How did I solve that Docker networking issue?"
• Code pattern library - Find reusable solutions and code snippets
• Architecture decisions - Review the reasoning behind technical choices
• Learning documentation - Track your skill development over time

🎨 Creative Project Management

Writers, designers, and creators can rediscover and build on creative ideas.

Creative workflows:

• Idea archaeology - Rediscover forgotten creative concepts
• Project evolution tracking - See how creative projects developed
• Inspiration mining - Find sparks of creativity from past conversations
• Collaboration history - Review feedback and iteration cycles

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🔧 Advanced Features

🎛️ Filtering & Search

• Multi-provider support - Claude and ChatGPT in one interface
• Role-based filtering - Human questions vs AI responses
• Date range selection - Find conversations from specific time periods
• Smart keyword expansion - Automatic wildcard matching for better recall
• Relevance ranking - Most relevant results first, or sort by date

📊 Data Management

• Multi-account indexing - Combine multiple AI accounts seamlessly
• Incremental updates - Easy reindexing with new conversation exports
• Account separation - Each export source labeled and filterable
• Conversation linking - Direct links back to original AI platforms
• Export preservation - Original files remain untouched

🖥️ User Experience

• Mobile responsive - Works great on phones and tablets
• Keyboard navigation - Tab through results, shortcuts for power users
• URL bookmarking - Share or save specific searches and filters
• Loading states - Clear feedback during operations
• Error handling - Graceful degradation with helpful error messages

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⚙️ Installation Options

🚀 Quick Start (Recommended)

git clone https://github.com/t1c1/safe-historical-search.git
cd safe-historical-search
./quickstart.sh

Handles everything automatically - virtual environment, dependencies, indexing, and server startup.

🔧 Manual Installation

Click to expand step-by-step manual setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/t1c1/safe-historical-search.git
cd safe-historical-search

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Prepare data
mkdir -p ./files
# Copy your AI export files into ./files/

# Build search index
python index.py --export ./files --out ./index

# Start server
python server.py --db ./index/chatgpt.db --port 5001

🐳 Docker Setup

Coming in v0.3.0 - Docker containerization

# Future Docker support
docker run -v ./files:/data -v ./index:/index -p 5001:5001 safe-historical-search

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🎨 Search Tips & Power User Guide

🔍 Search Operators

• Exact phrases: "machine learning model"
• Wildcards: python* (finds python, pythonic, etc.)
• Multiple terms: docker kubernetes deployment (finds all)
• Date filtering: Use date pickers or URL params ?date_from=2024-01-01

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

• Tab: Navigate through results
• Enter: Expand conversation context
• Ctrl+F: Focus search box
• Escape: Clear current search

🎯 Pro Tips

• Start broad, then narrow - Use general terms, then click pills to filter
• Use context expansion - See how conversations evolved over time
• Bookmark useful searches - URLs contain all filter parameters
• Combine filters - Provider + Role + Date for laser-focused results
• Check "Show context" - Often the full conversation has more valuable info

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🛡️ Privacy & Security Deep Dive

🔒 Data Protection

• Local-only processing - No internet required after setup
• No telemetry - Zero data collection or transmission
• Encrypted at rest - Your conversations stay in SQLite on your machine
• Easy cleanup - Delete the ./index folder to remove all processed data
• Source preservation - Original export files remain unchanged

🛠️ Security Features

• No external dependencies - Minimal attack surface
• Open source - Full code transparency
• No user accounts - No authentication or user tracking
• Local web server - Only accessible from your machine by default
• HTTPS ready - Can be configured with SSL certificates if needed

🔍 Data Handling

• Conversation parsing - Extracts text content only, preserves structure
• Metadata retention - Keeps timestamps, roles, and conversation IDs
• No content modification - Your original conversations are never altered
• Selective indexing - Choose which conversations to include

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🗺️ Development Roadmap

✅ Completed in v0.2.x

Originally planned for v0.2.0:

• 🤖 ChatGPT (OpenAI) logs import ✅ Full ChatGPT export support implemented
• 🏷️ Account filtering in search UI ✅ Multi-account support with provider pills
• 📱 Single-step installer ✅ quickstart.sh provides one-command setup

Additional features delivered:

• 🎯 Interactive clickable filters ✅ Click pills to filter instantly
• 🔍 Expandable conversation context ✅ Full thread preview with highlighting
• 📅 Smart date picker ✅ Native calendar widgets replace confusing sliders
• 🤖 Unified AI roles ✅ Simplified to Human/Assistant (system+assistant combined)
• ⚡ Real-time filtering ✅ Instant results without page refreshes
• 📱 Mobile responsiveness ✅ Works beautifully on all devices

🎯 Next Release (v0.3.0) - Q4 2025

• 🔍 Advanced search operators - AND, OR, NOT, parentheses, quotes
• 💾 Saved searches - Bookmark and organize frequent searches
• ⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts - Power user navigation and search
• 📊 Conversation statistics - Word counts, response times, topic trends
• 📱 Single-step installer - Auto-dependency management and setup
• 📤 Export functionality - Save filtered results to various formats

🔮 Future Releases (2026+)

• ⚡ Incremental indexing - Auto-update with file watcher for new conversations
• 🧠 Semantic search - AI-powered similarity search beyond keyword matching
• 📊 Export analytics - Advanced conversation insights and usage patterns
• 🏷️ Smart tagging - Auto-categorization and custom labels
• 🔌 Plugin ecosystem - Custom data sources and integrations
• 🌐 Team collaboration - Multi-user deployments with privacy controls

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🛠️ Technical Architecture

🏗️ Core Components

• Backend: Python 3.8+ with Flask web framework
• Database: SQLite with FTS5 full-text search extension
• Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript with modern CSS Grid/Flexbox
• Search Engine: Optimized SQL queries with snippet highlighting
• Data Processing: JSON parsing with robust error handling

⚡ Performance Specifications

• Index size: ~10-20MB per 1,000 conversations
• Search latency: <100ms for most queries, <500ms for complex filters
• Memory footprint: <50MB typical usage, <200MB with large datasets
• Startup time: <2 seconds for databases up to 100,000 messages
• Concurrent users: Supports multiple browser tabs, single-user focused

📁 File Format Support

• Claude exports: conversations.json, projects.json, users.json
• ChatGPT exports: conversations.json, user.json, shared_conversations.json, message_feedback.json
• Mixed providers: Automatic detection and unified indexing
• Version compatibility: Handles export format changes gracefully

🔧 Configuration Options

• Custom ports: --port 8080 for different port binding
• Database location: --db /path/to/custom.db for custom storage
• Host binding: --host 0.0.0.0 for network access (use with caution)
• Environment variables: CLAUDE_URL_TEMPLATE for custom linking
• Index optimization: Configurable FTS5 parameters for performance tuning

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🤝 Contributing & Community

🐛 Bug Reports & Feature Requests

Found an issue or have an idea? We'd love to hear from you:

• GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features
• Discussions: Community chat and questions

💻 Contributing Code

• Fork the repository and create a feature branch
• Follow the existing code style - Python PEP 8, clean HTML/CSS/JS
• Add tests for new functionality
• Update documentation including README and inline comments
• Submit a pull request with a clear description of changes

📝 Documentation

• Wiki contributions - Help expand the documentation
• Tutorial creation - Share your workflows and use cases
• Translation - Help make this accessible to more users

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📋 Version History

v0.2.1 - Current Release ✨

• Interactive filtering with clickable pills
• Expandable conversation context
• Smart date picker with native calendar widgets
• Unified Human/Assistant role system
• Real-time search updates
• Mobile-responsive design improvements
• Enhanced error handling and user feedback

v0.1.0 - Initial Release

• Basic full-text search functionality
• Claude and ChatGPT export support
• Simple web interface
• SQLite FTS5 indexing
• Conversation linking

Coming Soon

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed release notes and migration guides.

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🏆 Why Choose Safe Historical Search?

🆚 vs. Manual File Searching

• Instant results instead of opening dozens of files
• Cross-conversation search finds related discussions
• Visual context shows conversation flow and relationships
• Smart filtering narrows down thousands of conversations instantly

🆚 vs. Cloud-Based Solutions

• Complete privacy - your conversations never leave your device
• No subscription fees - free and open source forever
• Offline capable - works without internet connection
• No data limits - index unlimited conversations

🆚 vs. Basic Search Tools

• AI-conversation optimized - understands dialogue structure
• Provider integration - links back to original conversations
• Role-aware filtering - separate human questions from AI responses
• Context preservation - see how ideas developed over time

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🌟 Ready to Transform Your AI Conversations?

⭐ Star this repository if it helps you unlock the knowledge in your AI conversations!

git clone https://github.com/t1c1/safe-historical-search.git
cd safe-historical-search && ./quickstart.sh

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_{Built with ❤️ for AI conversation enthusiasts}

_{Privacy-first • Open source • Made in America • Zero telemetry}

_{📖 Documentation • 🐛 Issues • 💬 Discussions • 🔄 Changelog}