Retrieve and delete chats, files, and projects

The endpoints on this page expose claude.ai chat content, file uploads, projects, project attachments, and remote session transcripts to compliance reviewers. They support eDiscovery (electronic discovery) exports, data loss prevention (DLP) enforcement, and account-deletion responses. Chat, file, and project content is retained for as long as your organization's retention policy allows; remote session transcripts are retained for 6 years. Chats that a user has soft-deleted in claude.ai remain visible through the Compliance API with deleted_at populated; chats that have been hard-deleted (through the Compliance API itself, or after the organization's retention window expires) are not retrievable.

Both scopes are granted only on Compliance Access Keys (sk-ant-api01-...) created in claude.ai; see Set up the Compliance API to provision one. The read:compliance_user_data scope covers retrieval; delete:compliance_user_data is required only for the delete endpoints. The chat, file, project, attachment, and session endpoints are not available to Admin API keys (sk-ant-admin01-...); calls authenticated with an Admin API key return 403 Forbidden.

Endpoints on this page paginate two ways; see Paginate results for the full reference. Each section notes which scheme applies.



Retrieve chats and messages

Use List chats to page through chat metadata, then Get chat messages to fetch the full message content of one chat.

The chat list endpoint defaults to organization-wide scope: leave off user_ids[] to include every chat under your parent organization. Add order_by=updated_at to sort by last update time. This combination is the recommended way to export chats and keep an export current, because one paginated loop picks up both new and modified chats for every user without enumerating users first. The following request lists chats updated since a given date.

curl --fail-with-body -sS -G \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/chats" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "order_by=updated_at" \
  --data-urlencode "updated_at.gte=2025-06-01T00:00:00Z" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=100"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "claude_chat_01H5CWunD7RpVJ5bHa8RCkja",
      "name": "Product Requirements Discussion",
      "created_at": "2026-04-10T08:09:10Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-04-10T09:10:11Z",
      "deleted_at": null,
      "href": "https://claude.ai/chat/abcdef01-2345-6789-abcd-ef0123456789",
      "model": "claude-opus-5",
      "organization_uuid": "91012d09-e48b-438e-a489-1bebfd8fa6f9",
      "project_id": "claude_proj_01KGp4eZNug9ri4kE35RSppq",
      "user": {
        "id": "user_01XyDMpzjS89pFZXqSFUBDr6",
        "email_address": "[email protected]"
      }
    }
  ],
  "has_more": true,
  "first_id": "eyJrIjogInVwZGF0ZWRfYXQiLCAidCI6ICIyMDI2LTA0LTEwVDA5OjEwOjExKzAwOjAwIiwgImlkIjogImFiY2RlZjAxLS4uLiJ9",
  "last_id": "eyJrIjogInVwZGF0ZWRfYXQiLCAidCI6ICIyMDI2LTA0LTEwVDA5OjEwOjExKzAwOjAwIiwgImlkIjogImFiY2RlZjAxLS4uLiJ9"
}

Results sort ascending by the order_by field, oldest first, with ties broken by id. Pagination uses the standard first_id/last_id/has_more cursor fields described in Paginate results. To walk forward toward newer chats, pass the response's last_id back as after_id on the next request.

That forward walk is also how you keep an export current across runs: persist the final page's last_id and resume from it as after_id on the next run. Because the list is ordered by updated_at, a chat that changes after your saved cursor reappears ahead of it, so each incremental run returns both brand-new chats and older chats that have since been modified. Process results idempotently, keyed by chat id, to handle those reappearances.

A few constraints apply to these organization-wide queries. Cursors are opaque and bound to the sort key, so an after_id issued under one order_by value is rejected with a 400 error under the other. Time-filter bounds must match the sort key too: pair updated_at.* bounds with order_by=updated_at, and created_at.* bounds with the default order_by=created_at. Backward pagination with before_id is not supported, and the project_ids[] filter is not available. See List chats for the full filter reference.

To scope the list to specific users instead (for example, a legal hold on named custodians), pass 1–10 user_ids[] values. Obtain the IDs from List organization users. User-filtered queries always sort by created_at (passing order_by=updated_at returns a 400 error) and support both after_id and before_id. Filtering by project_ids[] is only available in this user-filtered form.

curl --fail-with-body -sS -G \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/chats" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "user_ids[]=user_01XyDMpzjS89pFZXqSFUBDr6" \
  --data-urlencode "created_at.gte=2025-06-01T00:00:00Z" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=100"

The list response carries chat metadata only. To pull the actual chat content, attached files, and inline artifacts (structured documents Claude generates inside a chat), follow up with the messages endpoint for each chat ID:

chat_id="claude_chat_01H5CWunD7RpVJ5bHa8RCkja"

curl --fail-with-body -sS \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/chats/$chat_id/messages" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY"

The messages endpoint returns the chat's metadata plus a chat_messages array sorted by created_at. When limit is omitted, the full message set is returned in one response; pass limit, after_id, or before_id to page through very long chats. The endpoint also accepts created_at.* and updated_at.* range bounds (gt, gte, lt, lte) and an order parameter (asc or desc). See Get chat messages for the full parameter list. For user messages, created_at is when the message was sent; for assistant messages, it is when Claude finished generating the message. Each message carries its text content and, when present, any uploaded files (typically on user messages), any tool-generated files, and any artifacts the assistant produced or updated (typically on assistant messages):

{
  "id": "claude_chat_01H5CWunD7RpVJ5bHa8RCkja",
  "name": "Product Requirements Discussion",
  "created_at": "2026-04-10T08:09:10Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-04-10T09:10:11Z",
  "deleted_at": null,
  "href": "https://claude.ai/chat/abcdef01-2345-6789-abcd-ef0123456789",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "organization_uuid": "91012d09-e48b-438e-a489-1bebfd8fa6f9",
  "project_id": "claude_proj_01KGp4eZNug9ri4kE35RSppq",
  "user": {
    "id": "user_01XyDMpzjS89pFZXqSFUBDr6",
    "email_address": "[email protected]"
  },
  "chat_messages": [
    {
      "id": "claude_chat_msg_01VnBPkLmtj7YdW5QrXKEA8c",
      "role": "user",
      "created_at": "2026-04-10T08:09:10Z",
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "Can you help me draft requirements for our new dashboard feature?"
        }
      ],
      "files": [
        {
          "id": "claude_file_01UaT9wBcDfGhJkLmNpQrSv7",
          "filename": "dashboard_mockup_v1.pdf",
          "mime_type": "application/pdf"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "claude_chat_msg_01M8tFcHwbQ2kY6NpEjRZv4D",
      "role": "assistant",
      "created_at": "2026-04-10T08:09:11Z",
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "I'd be happy to help you draft requirements for your dashboard feature..."
        }
      ],
      "generated_files": [
        {
          "id": "claude_gen_file_01TbR8wAcCeFhJkLnPqStUvX",
          "filename": "requirements_summary.csv",
          "mime_type": "text/csv"
        }
      ],
      "artifacts": [
        {
          "id": "claude_artifact_01HqRsTuVwXyZa2BcDeFgH4J",
          "version_id": "claude_artifact_version_01KmNpQrSt3UvWxYz5AbCdEfG",
          "title": "Dashboard Requirements Draft",
          "artifact_type": "text/markdown"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "has_more": false,
  "first_id": "eyJtc2dfdXVpZCI6ICIwZjcwYjA2Ni0uLi4ifQ==",
  "last_id": "eyJtc2dfdXVpZCI6ICJhNGUwYjE3Mi0uLi4ifQ=="
}

files, generated_files, and artifacts can each be null on a given message. files are binary uploads (PDFs, images, spreadsheets) the user attached to the message. generated_files are binary files the assistant created during the conversation through tool use (for example, PDFs, spreadsheets, or slide decks). artifacts are versioned documents (for example, code or markdown) the assistant generated or updated in its response; an artifact can be revised across multiple assistant turns in the same chat, and each revision appears as a new version_id under the same artifact id. Pass each entry's id (or version_id for artifacts) to the matching content endpoint in Retrieve files and artifacts to download it.

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Retrieve files and artifacts

Files and artifacts are downloaded by ID, not listed independently. The IDs come from the chat messages endpoint in Retrieve chats and messages (the files, generated_files, and artifacts arrays on each message) or, for project-level uploads, from the project attachments endpoint.

Pick the endpoint that matches your ID type and the data you need. The same file content endpoint serves both chat files and project files.

The file content endpoint streams the original upload as a chunked binary response with these headers:

• Content-Disposition: attachment; filename*=utf-8''<percent-encoded filename> carries the original upload file name in RFC 5987 extended form. The extended form is used for every file name, not only non-ASCII ones.
• Content-Type carries the upload's MIME type.
• Content-MD5 carries the file's MD5 digest, base64-encoded as specified in RFC 1864.
• Transfer-Encoding: chunked is always set.

file_id="claude_file_01UaT9wBcDfGhJkLmNpQrSv7"

curl --fail-with-body -sS -OJ \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY" \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/chats/files/$file_id/content"

The -OJ flags tell curl to save the response under the file name from Content-Disposition, which is the original file name the user uploaded.

The artifact content endpoint returns the text body of one artifact version. Pass the version_id from one of the entries in an assistant message's artifacts array, not the artifact's stable id. Each new version of an artifact has its own version_id, and the Compliance API serves the exact bytes of that version.

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Retrieve projects and attachments

Projects bundle related chats together with custom instructions, knowledge base content, and attached files or text documents. The Compliance API exposes project metadata, project details, and the list of attachments belonging to a project.

• List projects
• Get project details
• List project attachments
• Get project document content

Project results are sorted by creation date ascending. Attachment results are sorted by created_at ascending, with ties broken by id. Project list and attachment list responses paginate with an opaque next_page page token instead of the first_id/last_id cursors used by chats and the Activity Feed. Pass the token back as the page query parameter on the next request.



Project files versus project documents

A project attachment is one of two distinct shapes, identified by the type discriminator on each entry:

Entries with type of project_file are binary uploads (PDFs, images, spreadsheets) whose IDs start with claude_file_; download them with Download file content. Entries with type of project_doc are plain-text documents (always text/plain) whose IDs start with claude_proj_doc_; fetch them with Get project document content.

A consumer that walks the attachment list must branch on type and call the matching content endpoint for each entry. The following request lists one page of attachments; paginate by passing next_page back as the page parameter until has_more is false.

project_id="claude_proj_01KGp4eZNug9ri4kE35RSppq"

curl --fail-with-body -sS -G \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/projects/$project_id/attachments" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "claude_file_01UaT9wBcDfGhJkLmNpQrSv7",
      "created_at": "2026-04-10T08:09:10Z",
      "filename": "dashboard_mockup_v1.pdf",
      "mime_type": "application/pdf",
      "type": "project_file"
    },
    {
      "id": "claude_proj_doc_01YnT8sBcWvUtXzQpMkRfDgH",
      "created_at": "2026-04-10T08:09:11Z",
      "filename": "requirements.md",
      "mime_type": "text/plain",
      "type": "project_doc"
    }
  ],
  "has_more": false,
  "next_page": null
}

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Retrieve remote sessions

Cowork sessions started on claude.ai web or mobile run in Anthropic-managed cloud environments. The Compliance API exposes these remote sessions through two endpoints: GET /v1/compliance/apps/sessions/remote lists session metadata, and GET /v1/compliance/apps/sessions/remote/{session_id}/messages returns one session's transcript. Both require the read:compliance_user_data scope, and both count against the shared Compliance API rate limit plus a second budget specific to these endpoints; see 429 Too Many Requests.

The list endpoint defaults to organization-wide scope: leave off organization_ids[] to include every claude.ai organization your key can read, or pass up to 500 values to narrow the scope. To scope the list to specific users instead, pass 1–10 user_ids[] values (obtain the IDs from List organization users); the filter matches the session's owning user, so agent-owned sessions are excluded whenever user_ids[] is set. Bound the results in time with created_at range parameters (gte, gt, lt, lte, in RFC 3339 format). There is no updated_at filter. The following request lists sessions created since a given date.

curl --fail-with-body -sS -G \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/sessions/remote" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "created_at.gte=2026-06-01T00:00:00Z" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=100"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "cse_01WpQrStUvXyZaBcDeFgHjK6",
      "organization_uuid": "91012d09-e48b-438e-a489-1bebfd8fa6f9",
      "user": {
        "id": "user_01XyDMpzjS89pFZXqSFUBDr6",
        "email_address": "[email protected]"
      },
      "agent_id": null,
      "started_by_user": null,
      "status": "active",
      "created_at": "2026-07-01T17:04:05Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-07-01T18:00:41Z",
      "product_surface": "cowork_remote"
    },
    {
      "id": "cse_01TkNpRsUvWxYzAbCdEfGhJ4",
      "organization_uuid": "91012d09-e48b-438e-a489-1bebfd8fa6f9",
      "user": null,
      "agent_id": "cagt_01MnPqRsTuVwXyZaBcDeFgH8",
      "started_by_user": {
        "id": "user_01XyDMpzjS89pFZXqSFUBDr6",
        "email_address": "[email protected]"
      },
      "status": "archived",
      "created_at": "2026-06-28T09:15:22Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-06-28T09:47:10Z",
      "product_surface": "cowork_remote"
    }
  ],
  "next_page": "page_AAEfMk93cXpYdGxrZXk"
}

Results are sorted in reverse chronological order (newest first) by created_at and capped at limit results per response (default 100, max 500). The endpoint paginates with the same page-token scheme as projects and attachments (see Paginate results): pass the response's next_page value back as the page query parameter on the next request, and stop when next_page is null.

A session is owned by either a user or an agent, never both. For user-owned sessions, user carries the owner's ID and email address (email_address is null when the user is no longer a member of an organization your key can read) and agent_id is null. For agent-owned sessions (for example, scheduled tasks), user is null, agent_id carries the agent's ID (prefix cagt_), and started_by_user identifies the human who initiated the run, for example by starting a scheduled task; on user-owned sessions, started_by_user is null.

status is one of pending, active, paused, archived, or failed. A session is pending while it is being provisioned; a pending session has no transcript yet, and the messages endpoint returns 404 for it until provisioning completes. Sessions that have been deleted are never returned.

product_surface (string or null) identifies the product that created the session. The endpoint currently returns only sessions with product_surface of cowork_remote: Cowork sessions started on claude.ai web or mobile.



Retrieve a session transcript

The messages endpoint returns the session's transcript: user prompts, assistant responses, and tool calls and results. Thinking blocks and images are not included. For a coverage summary and a comparison with Cowork's OpenTelemetry logging, see the Compliance API FAQ.

session_id="cse_01WpQrStUvXyZaBcDeFgHjK6"

curl --fail-with-body -sS \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/sessions/remote/$session_id/messages" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY"

{
  "session": {
    "id": "cse_01WpQrStUvXyZaBcDeFgHjK6",
    "organization_uuid": "91012d09-e48b-438e-a489-1bebfd8fa6f9",
    "user": {
      "id": "user_01XyDMpzjS89pFZXqSFUBDr6",
      "email_address": null
    },
    "agent_id": null,
    "started_by_user": null,
    "status": "active",
    "created_at": "2026-07-01T17:04:05Z",
    "updated_at": "2026-07-01T18:00:41Z",
    "product_surface": "cowork_remote"
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "csev_01HjKmNpQrStUvWxYzAbCdE2",
      "role": "user",
      "created_at": "2026-07-01T17:04:05Z",
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "Summarize the customer feedback in the attached spreadsheet."
        }
      ],
      "sent_by_user_id": null,
      "content_unavailable": false
    },
    {
      "id": "csev_01BcDeFgHjKmNpQrStUvWxY4",
      "role": "assistant",
      "created_at": "2026-07-01T17:04:06Z",
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "I'll start by reading the spreadsheet..."
        }
      ],
      "sent_by_user_id": null,
      "content_unavailable": false
    }
  ],
  "next_page": null
}

The response embeds a session envelope alongside the paginated data array. On this endpoint the envelope always has user.email_address and started_by_user set to null; get those values from the list endpoint instead.

Messages are returned oldest first by default; pass order=desc to reverse. Pagination uses the same page/next_page scheme as the list endpoint, with a limit default of 100 and a max of 1,000. A page can end early when the response reaches its size budget, so a page with fewer than limit messages does not mean you have reached the end; keep paginating until next_page is null.

Each message carries a role (user or assistant) and a content array of text, tool_use, and tool_result blocks. Message created_at values are commit timestamps: consecutive messages can share a timestamp or slightly invert, so preserve the returned order rather than re-sorting by created_at. On agent-owned sessions, sent_by_user_id records the user who sent a given user message when one is attributable; it is null otherwise, including on all assistant messages. When a message's content cannot be returned at all (for example, it exceeds size bounds), the message carries content_unavailable set to true.

Two parameters cap how many bytes of each tool block are returned: tool_use_input_max_bytes and tool_result_max_bytes, both defaulting to 10,000 bytes. Pass -1 for the server maximum (about 1 MiB); 0 is invalid. A block cut off by either cap carries "truncated": true, and a truncated tool_use input is no longer valid JSON, so parse tool inputs only from untruncated blocks (or raise the cap and refetch).

The messages endpoint returns 404 Not Found for pending sessions, deleted sessions, and sessions in organizations your key cannot read.



Delete content

The Compliance API exposes hard-delete endpoints for chats, files, project documents, and entire projects. A hard-deleted chat cannot be restored, and it stops appearing in list responses afterward (whereas a chat soft-deleted from claude.ai still appears with deleted_at populated).

• Delete chat: also removes the chat's messages and any files attached to those messages.
• Delete file: handles both chat files and project files.
• Delete project document: removes a single project document by ID.
• Delete project: see Detach chats before deleting a project.

All four endpoints require the delete:compliance_user_data scope, which is granted separately from the read scope when the Compliance Access Key is created.

The remote session endpoints are read-only; remote sessions cannot be deleted through the Compliance API. Session transcripts are retained for 6 years; see API and data retention.

The following request deletes one chat. The same pattern applies to the other delete endpoints; only the URL changes.

# WARNING: This operation PERMANENTLY deletes the chat, all of its messages,
# and any attached files. Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone. It
# requires the `delete:compliance_user_data` scope, which is granted separately
# from `read:compliance_user_data` when the Compliance Access Key is created.
# Ensure you have explicit authorization before running this.

chat_id="claude_chat_01H5CWunD7RpVJ5bHa8RCkja"

curl --fail-with-body -sS -X DELETE \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/chats/$chat_id" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY"

{
  "id": "claude_chat_01H5CWunD7RpVJ5bHa8RCkja",
  "type": "claude_chat_deleted"
}

Each successful delete returns a small confirmation envelope with an id and a type discriminator. The chat endpoint returns claude_chat_deleted; check the type field before treating the delete as confirmed. See the response schema on each delete endpoint's API reference page for the exact type value the other endpoints return.



Detach chats before deleting a project

A project cannot be deleted while any chats remain attached to it. The API returns 409 with this body:

{
  "error": {
    "type": "conflict_error",
    "message": "The \"claude_proj_01KGp4eZNug9ri4kE35RSppq\" project cannot be deleted as it has chats attached to it. Delete or detach all chats, and try deleting the project again."
  }
}

To resolve, list the project's chats with GET /v1/compliance/apps/chats?user_ids[]={user_id}&project_ids[]={project_id} (the project_ids[] filter requires at least one user_ids[] value; enumerate IDs through List organization users), delete each one with DELETE /v1/compliance/apps/chats/{claude_chat_id} (or move it out of the project from claude.ai), and then retry the project delete.

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Next steps