Retrieve session transcripts

The endpoints on this page expose transcripts of the sessions your users run in Claude apps and agents (today, Cowork and Claude Code) from your Claude Enterprise organizations to compliance reviewers. Each session is a single conversation with Claude; its transcript is the sequence of user prompts, assistant responses, and tool calls and results in that conversation. The endpoints support eDiscovery (electronic discovery) exports and data loss prevention (DLP) enforcement.

The Compliance API groups sessions into two endpoint families according to where they run: local session endpoints for sessions on users' machines, and remote session endpoints for sessions that run in the cloud in Anthropic-managed environments. Both families are read-only, and neither is available to Admin API keys (sk-ant-admin01-...): calls authenticated with an Admin API key return 403 Forbidden.

The following table maps each product, and where it runs, to the endpoint family that returns its sessions and the product_surface value that identifies them in responses. Products are added to this table as coverage expands.

Capture of local sessions is tied to the Compliance API being enabled for your organization and applies while users are signed in with their Claude Enterprise account. The session endpoints do not return the following:

• Claude Code sessions authenticated with a Claude Console API key, or run through a third-party cloud platform such as Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Foundry.
• Claude Code on the web. It also runs in the cloud in Anthropic-managed environments, but it is not a remote session; the remote session endpoints return Cowork sessions only.
• Local sessions in organizations with HIPAA readiness enabled. No local session data is captured, so the local session endpoints return no sessions for those organizations.
• Local sessions for which zero data retention (ZDR) is in effect. These sessions are excluded from list results, and the retrieve and messages endpoints return 404 for them.

The following table summarizes how local sessions and remote sessions differ.



Sessions on users' machines (local sessions)

Local sessions run on users' machines while they are signed in with their Claude Enterprise account: today, Cowork in Claude Desktop, and Claude Code in the terminal, in Claude Desktop, or in an IDE extension.

The Compliance API exposes local sessions through three endpoints: GET /v1/compliance/apps/sessions/local lists session metadata, GET /v1/compliance/apps/sessions/local/{session_id} retrieves one session's metadata, and GET /v1/compliance/apps/sessions/local/{session_id}/messages returns one session's transcript. All three require the read:compliance_user_data scope and count only against the shared Compliance API rate limit; they are not subject to the second request budget that applies to the remote session endpoints. See 429 Too Many Requests. If local sessions are not available to your parent organization, all three endpoints return 404 with the message Local sessions are not available. (see Local session not found); while session listings or captured content are temporarily unavailable, they return 503 (see Local sessions temporarily unavailable).

For local sessions, Anthropic records each conversation server-side as its requests reach the Claude API; nothing is installed on the device, and nothing is collected beyond the requests the client already sends to the Claude API. Local session transcripts show what Claude was asked to do and what it returned, not what happened on the device. File and network activity is visible only through the tool calls and tool results in the transcript, so activity that never reaches the API (for example, local files the session never sent) is not captured.

In organizations that use customer-managed encryption keys, local sessions are listed and retrievable as usual, but transcript content is not currently returned; each message comes back with its content marked unavailable (see Retrieve a local session transcript for how such messages are marked).

The list endpoint returns session metadata, with no transcript content, for every linked organization your key can read. Unlike the remote session list, it has no organization or user filters: bound the results in time with the created_at.gte and created_at.lt parameters. Both take RFC 3339 timestamps with a required UTC offset, and when both are supplied, created_at.lt must be strictly after created_at.gte or the request returns 400 Bad Request. New sessions and messages appear in results after a short processing delay, typically within minutes; a session that is missing immediately after it starts is not necessarily uncaptured. The following request lists sessions created since a given date.

curl --fail-with-body -sS -G \
  "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/compliance/apps/sessions/local" \
  --header "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_COMPLIANCE_ACCESS_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "created_at.gte=2026-07-01T00:00:00Z" \
  --data-urlencode "limit=100"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "compliance_local_session",
      "id": "clls_01HxKpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBc",
      "organization_uuid": "9a1e0000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
      "workspace_id": "wrkspc_01SvYKoWVRVHoEbwESNvzYdR",
      "user": {
        "id": "user_01GpKpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBc",
        "email_address": "[email protected]"
      },
      "product_surface": "cowork",
      "created_at": "2026-07-09T14:02:11Z"
    },
    {
      "type": "compliance_local_session",
      "id": "clls_01HyLqMnOpQrStUvWxYzAbCd",
      "organization_uuid": "9a1e0000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
      "workspace_id": null,
      "user": {
        "id": "user_01HqRsTuVwXyZaBcDeFgHiJk",
        "email_address": null
      },
      "product_surface": "claude_code",
      "created_at": "2026-07-08T09:15:43Z"
    }
  ],
  "next_page": "page_AAEfQx7mPdLkq9Rt2VwHbZk"
}

Results are sorted in reverse chronological order (newest first) by created_at, with ties broken in a fixed server-side order, and capped at limit results per response (default 100, max 500). The endpoint paginates forward only with page and next_page tokens (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. The response has no has_more field. Complete a list walk within 24 hours of starting it; an older list cursor is still accepted but is re-evaluated against the current retention boundary, so sessions whose oldest retained activity is about to age out of the retention period can be skipped.

In each session object, user.id is always set and survives account deletion; user.email_address is null when the user's account has been deleted or the user is no longer a member of an organization your key can read. workspace_id is null when the session was not associated with a workspace. A local session corresponds to one client session ID: starting a new conversation in the client, or clearing its context, begins a new session record. Treat id values as opaque strings; the format may change without notice.

Local sessions carry no status and no updated_at: a local session has no server-side lifecycle, and its visibility is governed by retention instead. A local session is captured as the series of Claude API calls (inference calls) that the client makes during the session, and retention applies to each captured call individually. created_at is the timestamp of the session's earliest retained call (UTC). As older calls age past the retention period, created_at advances accordingly, and once every call in a session has aged out, the session is no longer returned. Because created_at can shift between runs, deduplicate on id when you re-walk the list over time. A session's created_at does not move later as the session continues, and there is no updated_at, so a session that gains messages after you first export it does not reappear in a later created_at window. To keep transcripts current, re-list a trailing window at least as long as your longest-running sessions on each run and re-fetch the transcripts of the sessions it returns, deduplicating messages on id.

The list is built from session activity metadata, so it can include sessions whose transcript content was not captured, for example sessions that ran before capture began for your organization (as far back as your retention period allows); the transcript of such a session returns each message with its content marked unavailable (see Retrieve a local session transcript).

Captured local session content is stored for 6 years from capture by default. If the organization that ran the session has set a finite custom conversation retention period in claude.ai > Organization settings > Data and privacy, that period applies instead, whether it is shorter or longer than the default; when the organization has more than one custom retention period configured, the shortest applies. A change to that setting takes effect in two different ways: the endpoints stop returning activity older than the organization's current period as soon as the setting changes, whereas each captured message is stored for the period that was in effect when it was captured, so lengthening the period later does not restore content that has already expired.

To fetch one session's metadata directly, pass its ID to GET /v1/compliance/apps/sessions/local/{session_id}. The response is the same session object the list endpoint returns, with no envelope and no transcript content. A malformed session ID returns 400 Bad Request. A single 404 Not Found covers four cases that the response does not distinguish: the session is not in an organization your key can read (including sessions under another parent organization), it does not exist, zero data retention is in effect for it, or every call in it has aged past retention.

product_surface (string or null) identifies the product that created the session: cowork for Cowork sessions running on the user's machine in Claude Desktop, and claude_code for Claude Code sessions. New values appear as coverage expands.



Retrieve a local session transcript

The messages endpoint returns the session's transcript, reconstructed from the captured Claude API calls: user prompts, assistant text, tool calls, and the text portions of tool results, all returned as they were sent apart from size truncation. Nothing masks URLs, credentials, or personal data in that content, so treat transcripts as sensitive. The transcript omits or replaces the following:

• Thinking blocks are never included.
• The request's system prompt is never returned. A marker message reading [system prompt content not shown] stands in for it (normally once per session; a session with no captured content carries no marker).
• Tool definitions and MCP server configuration are not part of the transcript.
• Images, PDFs, and other binary or structured blocks are not returned. Each appears as a text block reading [<block type> content not shown] (for example, [image content not shown]) with truncated set to true. Non-text items inside a tool result are replaced by one [N non-text item(s) not shown] entry, and the tool result block's truncated is true.
• Citation metadata on text blocks is omitted, and the affected block carries truncated set to true.

Project instruction files such as CLAUDE.md appear as ordinary user-role content. Skill content appears when the client sends it as message content and is not distinguished from other user text. For a coverage summary and a comparison with OpenTelemetry logging for Cowork and Claude Code, see the Compliance API FAQ.

session_id="clls_01HxKpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBc"

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

{
  "session": {
    "type": "compliance_local_session",
    "id": "clls_01HxKpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBc",
    "organization_uuid": "9a1e0000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "workspace_id": "wrkspc_01SvYKoWVRVHoEbwESNvzYdR",
    "user": {
      "id": "user_01GpKpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBc",
      "email_address": null
    },
    "product_surface": "cowork",
    "created_at": "2026-07-09T14:02:11Z"
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "compliance_local_session_message",
      "id": "clsm_01J4KpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBa",
      "role": "user",
      "created_at": "2026-07-09T14:02:11Z",
      "provenance": {
        "type": "synthetic_marker"
      },
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "[system prompt content not shown]",
          "truncated": true
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "compliance_local_session_message",
      "id": "clsm_01J4KpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBc",
      "role": "user",
      "created_at": "2026-07-09T14:02:11Z",
      "provenance": null,
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "Fix the failing test in tests/auth_test.py",
          "truncated": false
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "compliance_local_session_message",
      "id": "clsm_01J4KpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBd",
      "role": "assistant",
      "created_at": "2026-07-09T14:02:11Z",
      "provenance": null,
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "I'll read the test file first.",
          "truncated": false
        },
        {
          "type": "tool_use",
          "id": "toolu_01AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrSt",
          "name": "Read",
          "input": "{\"file_path\":\"tests/auth_test.py\"}",
          "truncated": false
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "compliance_local_session_message",
      "id": "clsm_01J4KpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBe",
      "role": "user",
      "created_at": "2026-07-09T14:02:38Z",
      "provenance": null,
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "tool_result",
          "tool_use_id": "toolu_01AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrSt",
          "name": "Read",
          "is_error": false,
          "content": [
            {
              "type": "text",
              "text": "def test_login_expiry():\n    ..."
            }
          ],
          "truncated": false
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "compliance_local_session_message",
      "id": "clsm_01J4KpLmNoPqRsTuVwXyZaBf",
      "role": "assistant",
      "created_at": "2026-07-09T14:02:38Z",
      "provenance": null,
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "text": "The test was asserting on a stale expiry timestamp. I've updated it.",
          "truncated": false
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "next_page": null
}

The response embeds a session envelope alongside the paginated data array. The first record in this example is the marker that stands in for the request's system prompt; its provenance is described later in this section. On this endpoint user.email_address is always null: the messages endpoint does not resolve email addresses, so a null here does not mean the user's account was deleted. To attribute a session to an email address, join user.id against the list endpoint or the retrieve endpoint (GET /v1/compliance/apps/sessions/local/{session_id}).

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 limit, so a page with fewer than limit messages does not mean you have reached the end; keep paginating until next_page is null. Page cursors are bound to the session and sort order they were issued under, and a walk's cursors expire 24 hours after its first page: an expired cursor returns 400 Bad Request telling you to restart without the page parameter, and the restarted walk reflects the current retention boundary. A cursor issued for a different session or order also returns 400, as an invalid cursor.

Each message carries a role (user or assistant) and a content array of text, tool_use, and tool_result blocks. A text block carries text and truncated. A tool_use block carries id, name, input, and truncated, where input is a JSON-encoded string rather than an object. A tool_result block carries tool_use_id, name, is_error, a content array of text entries, and truncated. MCP tool calls and results, and most server tool calls and results, are normalized into these same tool_use and tool_result shapes; any other block type appears as a [<block type> content not shown] placeholder. A message id is stable while the turn is retained. Every message reconstructed from the same inference call carries that call's timestamp, so consecutive messages often share a created_at value; preserve the returned order rather than re-sorting by timestamp.

Each message also carries a provenance field describing how its content was captured. provenance is null for verified content captured by the Claude API, which is the common case. Otherwise it is an object whose type marks the exception:

• content_unavailable means the content cannot be returned. The content array is empty, and provenance.reason states why. not_captured means no content is available for the turn; it does not prove that no record was stored, because content withheld by a storage-side access policy is reported with the same reason (for example, in organizations that use customer-managed encryption keys), and individual turns within an otherwise captured session can be unavailable for other data-handling reasons and carry the same reason. cmek_key_revoked is reserved for content encrypted under your organization's customer-managed key when that key is unavailable (for example, revoked); it is not currently returned, so handle it for forward compatibility. retention_elapsed means the content aged past retention. oversize means a single message exceeded the per-message size bound; the message is still returned, with an empty content array.
• client_asserted marks assistant messages that the client supplied as conversation history and that could not be matched to a captured response; their authorship is not verified.
• synthetic_marker marks records generated by the endpoint itself, such as the marker that stands in for the system prompt. When the client rewrites or compacts its conversation history mid-session (for example, after context compaction), the transcript inserts a marker message at that point and continues with the new content the client sent; when your organization has a finite retention period, the rewritten history itself is withheld (a second marker notes this) and only the latest user turn and what follows are shown.

Marker and client-asserted messages begin with a bracketed explanatory text block flagged truncated: true, for example [system prompt content not shown]. Treat these records as present but unavailable or unverified rather than missing, and tolerate unrecognized provenance types and reasons.

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 per string); 0 returns 400 Bad Request, and values above the maximum are clamped to it. A string cut off by either cap is cut on a character boundary and has an in-band suffix appended (for example, …[truncated; pass tool_result_max_bytes=-1 for the server max]), and its block carries "truncated": true. A truncated tool_use input is therefore no longer valid JSON, so parse tool inputs only from untruncated blocks (or raise the cap and refetch). Blocks of type text are always capped at the same server maximum of about 1 MiB; no parameter raises it, and a text block at the bound also carries "truncated": true.

Transcript content honors the retention period described under Sessions on users' machines. When the start of a session has aged past it, the transcript begins with a single content_unavailable placeholder with reason of retention_elapsed, and the retained messages follow. When every call in a session has aged out, the messages endpoint returns 404 Not Found, as it does for sessions in organizations your key cannot read, sessions that do not exist, and sessions for which zero data retention is in effect. A malformed session ID returns 400 Bad Request.



Sessions in the cloud (remote sessions)

Cowork sessions started on claude.ai web or mobile run in the cloud in Anthropic-managed 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 request 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",
      "claude_project_id": "claude_proj_01KGp4eZNug9ri4kE35RSppq"
    },
    {
      "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",
      "claude_project_id": null
    }
  ],
  "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 page and next_page tokens (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.

claude_project_id is the ID of the claude.ai project the session belongs to (prefix claude_proj_), or null when the session is not in a project.

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 remote 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",
    "claude_project_id": null
  },
  "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.",
          "truncated": false
        }
      ],
      "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...",
          "truncated": false
        }
      ],
      "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, started_by_user, and claude_project_id 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 limit, 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 per string); 0 returns 400 Bad Request. 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, sessions that do not exist or have been deleted, and sessions in organizations your key cannot read.



Retention and deletion

The session endpoints are read-only; local and remote sessions cannot be deleted through the Compliance API. Local session transcripts are retained for 6 years by default, or your organization's custom conversation retention period when a finite one is set, as described under Sessions on users' machines. Remote session transcripts are retained for 6 years. For how these periods sit alongside Anthropic's other retention arrangements, see API and data retention.



Next steps