chatgpt2md

Take your ChatGPT history with you to Claude. Full-text search included.

A fast CLI tool that converts your ChatGPT export into organized Markdown files, builds a search index, and provides an MCP server so Claude can search and read your conversation history natively.

Key features:

• Converts ChatGPT export (ZIP or JSON) to clean Markdown files
• Built-in full-text search powered by Tantivy
• MCP server with 3 tools for Claude integration
• One-command auto-install for Claude Desktop and Claude Code
• Works on macOS and Windows
• Single binary, no runtime dependencies

Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Step 1: Export Your ChatGPT Data
• Step 2: Install chatgpt2md
• Step 3: Convert Your Export
• Step 4: Connect to Claude
• Step 5: Use It!
• Commands Reference
• Manual MCP Configuration
• Output Structure
• Building from Source
• License

Quick Start

# Install
cargo install --git https://github.com/NextStat/chatgpt2md

# Convert your ChatGPT export
chatgpt2md export.zip

# Install MCP into Claude (auto-configures everything)
chatgpt2md install --index ./chatgpt_chats/.index --chats ./chatgpt_chats

# Restart Claude — done!

Step 1: Export Your ChatGPT Data

1. Go to chatgpt.com
2. Click your profile icon (bottom-left) > Settings
3. Go to Data controls
4. Click Export data > Confirm export
5. Wait for the email from OpenAI (usually arrives within a few minutes)
6. Download the ZIP file from the link in the email

The ZIP file contains conversations.json with all your chat history.

Tip: The export includes ALL your conversations — this may take a while if you have thousands of chats.

Step 2: Install chatgpt2md

Option A: Pre-built binaries (recommended)

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page:

# macOS / Linux: extract and move to PATH
tar xzf chatgpt2md-*.tar.gz
sudo mv chatgpt2md /usr/local/bin/

Option B: Install from source

Requires Rust 1.85+:

cargo install --git https://github.com/NextStat/chatgpt2md

Option C: Build locally

git clone https://github.com/NextStat/chatgpt2md
cd chatgpt2md
cargo build --release
# Binary is at ./target/release/chatgpt2md

Step 3: Convert Your Export