Your ChatGPT history. Clean Markdown. Zero memory overhead.

     

Install  ·  Quick Start  ·  Formats  ·  Filtering  ·  Config  ·  Fields Reference

Takes your conversations.json from ChatGPT and turns it into clean, readable Markdown — or plain text, or structured JSON. Uses streaming parsing (ijson) so even 100MB+ exports never hit memory. Every aspect of filtering, formatting, and output is configurable through CLI flags or a single TOML file.

$ chatgpt-export export conversations.json --split subject --output-dir vault/

  Exported 824 files to vault/

Tip

Export straight into your Obsidian vault for a fully searchable, linked archive of every conversation you've ever had with ChatGPT.

Installation

Requires Python 3.10+  ·  managed with uv

git clone https://github.com/voidfreud/chatgpt-export-tool.git
cd chatgpt-export-tool
uv sync

 Dev tooling (pytest, ruff, coverage)

uv sync --group dev

Verify:

uv run chatgpt-export --help

Quick Start

# Analyze — stats without loading the whole file
uv run chatgpt-export analyze conversations.json

# Export to markdown on stdout
uv run chatgpt-export export conversations.json

# One markdown file per conversation
uv run chatgpt-export export conversations.json --split subject --output-dir exports/

# JSON dump
uv run chatgpt-export export conversations.json --format json --output dump.json

Output Formats

Format	Flag	Extension
Markdown	--format md	.md	# headings, > blockquoted context, --- turn separators. Default.
Plain text	--format txt	.txt	Indented, plain labels — good for terminals and grep.
JSON	--format json	.json	Filtered conversation objects, valid JSON.

Markdown and text exports follow the active conversation branch — you see the conversation as it played out, not the full tree with edits and branches.

 Preview: Markdown output

# Opening bank account in Thailand
**ID:** 68ed8eba-1d00-832a-a2f1-4721496ed217
**Created:** 23:43 13-10-2025
**Turns:** 34

## Conversation Context
> User profile: The user provided the following information...
> User instructions: Speaking to Nova. Zero restraint...

## User [23:43 13-10-2025]
Can a foreigner open a Thailand bank account?

---

## Assistant [23:44 13-10-2025]
Yup — a foreigner *can* open a bank account in Thailand, but it's
*much more difficult* now than it used to be...

Default transcript policy:

	Shown	Hidden
	User text, assistant text, thoughts, context (compact)	Tool plumbing, code execution, reasoning recap, blank nodes

Fully configurable via [transcript] in the TOML config.

Commands

analyze

Structure and statistics — without writing output files.

uv run chatgpt-export analyze data.json
uv run chatgpt-export analyze data.json --fields          # include field coverage
uv run chatgpt-export analyze data.json --verbose --output analysis.txt
uv run chatgpt-export analyze data.json --debug

export

Convert conversations with full control over structure, metadata, and layout.

uv run chatgpt-export export data.json --fields "groups minimal"
uv run chatgpt-export export data.json --format json --split date --output-dir by-date/
uv run chatgpt-export export data.json --include "model*" --exclude plugin_ids
uv run chatgpt-export export data.json --config chatgpt_export.toml

Filtering

Structural fields  --fields

--fields all                                  # everything (default)
--fields none                                 # structure only
--fields "include title,create_time,mapping"  # whitelist
--fields "exclude moderation_results"         # blacklist
--fields "groups minimal"                     # named group

 Built-in groups

Group	Fields
conversation	_id conversation_id create_time update_time title type
message	author content status end_turn
metadata	model_slug message_type is_archived
minimal	title create_time message

Full reference: Fields.md

Metadata  --include / --exclude

Runs after structural filtering. Applies to keys inside message.metadata.

--include model_slug
--include "model*" --exclude plugin_ids       # glob patterns

Split Modes

Mode	Flag	Output
single	--split single	One stream or file (default)
subject	--split subject	Title_ID.md per conversation
date	--split date	Daily folders
id	--split id	Named by conversation ID

Note

--output is for single mode. Split modes use --output-dir.

Configuration

Persist defaults in a single TOML file. The repo ships chatgpt_export.toml.example.

cp chatgpt_export.toml.example chatgpt_export.toml
uv run chatgpt-export export data.json --config chatgpt_export.toml

CLI flags always override TOML values.

 TOML reference

[defaults] — format, split, fields, output directory, metadata

[transcript] — branch following and visibility

Key	Default
show_system_messages	false	System prompts
show_tool_messages	false	Tool/function calls
show_assistant_code	false	Code execution
show_reasoning_recap	false	Reasoning summaries
user_editable_context_mode	"compact"	"compact" or "full"

[text_output] — layout and formatting

Key	Default
layout_mode	"reading"	"reading" or "compact"
heading_style	"markdown"	"markdown" or "plain"
turn_separator	"---"	Between turns
strip_chatgpt_artifacts	true	Remove citation artifacts
wrap_width	88	0 to disable

 Presets

Reading-first (default)

[text_output]
layout_mode = "reading"
heading_style = "markdown"
strip_chatgpt_artifacts = true
wrap_width = 88

Compact

[text_output]
layout_mode = "compact"
turn_separator = ""
wrap_width = 0

Terminal

[defaults]
format = "txt"

[text_output]
heading_style = "plain"

Architecture

chatgpt_export_tool/
├── cli.py                  ← entry point
├── commands/               ← analyze, export
└── core/
    ├── parser.py           ← streaming JSON (ijson)
    ├── filter_pipeline.py  ← field + metadata filtering
    ├── export_service.py   ← orchestration
    ├── config/             ← TOML loading & validation
    ├── transcript/         ← branch reconstruction
    ├── validation/         ← field & metadata checks
    └── output/             ← formatters, writer, paths

Modular by design — filtering, formatting, splitting, and writing are separate concerns.

Development

uv run pytest
uv run pytest --cov=chatgpt_export_tool --cov-report=term-missing
uv run ruff check chatgpt_export_tool tests
uv run ruff format --check chatgpt_export_tool tests

MIT  ·  built by @voidfreud