Developer david-g-3654 dropped a "Show HN" project on August 13th that solves a genuinely annoying problem: searching through months of ChatGPT and Claude conversations. The tool, called Chatlens, is packaged as a single HTML file weighing roughly 85KB. There's no build step, no backend to configure, and crucially, nothing gets uploaded anywhere—your data stays on your machine.

How It Works

Using Chatlens couldn't be simpler: download the HTML file, open it in any browser, then drag-and-drop your exported chat history onto the interface. The tool processes JSON export files from both OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. That's it—no API keys, no account creation, no waiting for server responses.

Current Limitations

The developer is upfront about what doesn't work yet. Attachments like images are handled as text references rather than rendered inline, so you won't see the visual content of your conversations. This means if you've been sharing screenshots or generated images with these AI assistants, you'll only see file paths and metadata in Chatlens rather than the actual media.

Why Offline Matters

For power users who have thousands of conversations spanning months of work, this kind of local search tool fills a real gap. Both OpenAI and Anthropic offer their own web interfaces for browsing history, but they require internet connectivity and trusting those companies with continued access to your data. Chatlens gives you permanent offline access to your exported archives, which matters if you're concerned about long-term data portability or simply want faster search without latency.

Key Takeaways

  • Single 85KB HTML file requires zero installation or configuration
  • Processes JSON exports from both ChatGPT and Claude
  • All processing happens locally in the browser—no server calls
  • Attachments and images display as text references only, not rendered
  • Useful for anyone with large conversation archives who wants fast offline search

The Bottom Line

This is exactly the kind of tool the AI community needs more of—simple utilities that respect user privacy while solving practical problems. Chatlens won't win any design awards, but it does one thing well: letting you find that obscure prompt from six months ago without firing up a server or scrolling through endless web UI pages.