Go CI License: MIT SQLite Astro

Local-first notebook for importing your own ChatGPT export zips into a canonical SQLite history browser.

Some of us have been building with ChatGPT since the subscription first became available. Years of conversations become more than chat logs: they are research trails, project memory, debugging sessions, writing drafts, product ideas, lessons learned, and thousands of small moments where thinking turned into work.

OpenAI's export feature is useful, but a zip file is not a notebook. It is a backup, not a retrieval system. chat-notebook turns that export into a local, searchable, inspectable archive that you own.

The point is simple: if you have invested years of input, exploration, assistance, and learning into a system, you should not lose access to that history because the internet is down, a product changes, an account breaks, or a company crisis changes the trust equation overnight. Your exported conversations should be useful on your own machine, in a format you can keep, search, and build on.

Input:

• OpenAI export zip (must contain conversations.json)

Output:

• SQLite database (source of truth)
• blob directory for extracted attachments/media (best-effort)

Install:

• go install github.com/justyn-clark/chat-notebook/cmd/chat-notebook@latest
• Or from a release tag: go install github.com/justyn-clark/chat-notebook/cmd/chat-notebook@v0.1.0

Build from source:

• git clone https://github.com/justyn-clark/chat-notebook.git
• cd chat-notebook
• make viewer-build build

Quickstart after install:

• chat-notebook query --q "OpenClaw handoff" --db ./chat-notebook.db --json
• chat-notebook serve --db ./chat-notebook.db --blobs ./blobs --addr 127.0.0.1:8787

Quickstart after a source build:

• ./target/chat-notebook query --q "OpenClaw handoff" --db ./chat-notebook.db --json
• ./target/chat-notebook serve --db ./chat-notebook.db --blobs ./blobs --addr 127.0.0.1:8787

First run:

• ./target/chat-notebook serve --db ./chat-notebook.db --blobs ./blobs --addr 127.0.0.1:8787
• Open the app in your browser.
• Request your ChatGPT export, download the zip, and import the untouched zip from the setup screen.
• After import completes, browse conversations, search history, and inspect artifacts locally.

Where to request the export:

ChatGPT data export screen

Build requirements:

• Go 1.25+
• Node.js 22.12+ for the Astro viewer build

Repeat imports:

• Export newer ChatGPT data later and import the new zip from the app.
• Existing rows are deduped; new conversations, messages, and artifacts are merged into the same notebook.

Import fidelity:

• plain text parts are normalized into readable message text
• structured attachment/media parts are summarized instead of dumped as raw JSON blobs
• best-effort attachment/media files are materialized under --blobs
• attachment artifacts include local /api/blobs/... links when a matching file is found in the export zip

CLI import remains available:

• ./target/chat-notebook import --zip export.zip --db ./chat-notebook.db --blobs ./blobs --json
• ./target/chat-notebook inspect stats --db ./chat-notebook.db --json

Invariants:

• deterministic import
• no data loss (raw JSON is always stored)
• idempotent re-import with dedupe by stable IDs and hashes