Unify memory between Claude Code (local files) and claude.ai / Desktop chat (server-side)
Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 2 comments · opened Aug 31, 2026
Memory is currently split across two systems that can't see each other:
- Claude Code (CLI, terminal, Cowork, the Code tab in Desktop) stores memory as local files under
~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/. It's per-project, tied to one machine, and not backed up anywhere by default. - claude.ai in the browser, the Desktop chat tab, and the Chrome extension use server-side memory tied to the account. It syncs across devices and to mobile.
As a user of both, this creates real friction:
- Things I tell one side have to be repeated to the other. Setting up context in Claude Code doesn't help me at all when I'm on my phone.
- Local Code memory is lost if the machine dies. I had to build my own scheduled task plus a private GitHub repo just to back it up — that shouldn't be something individual users reinvent.
- Local memory is also split within Claude Code, per project folder, so the same facts about me end up duplicated across several memory directories.
- There's no way to tell, as a user, which memory a given Claude actually has. It's easy to assume it all connects when it doesn't.
What would help, roughly in priority order:
- Let account-level facts (preferences, who I am, how I like to work) sync between Claude Code and claude.ai, rather than living in two disconnected stores.
- Separate account-level memory from project-level memory, so personal preferences aren't duplicated into every project folder.
- Built-in backup/export for local Code memory.
- Somewhere in the UI that plainly shows what memory this Claude has and where it's stored.
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