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Updated Claude storage/memory map: what's local, what's cloud, and what changes Oct 6

October 3, 2026

In July I published two maps of where Claude keeps your stuff. They had a nice clean shape. Chat lived in the cloud. Claude Code lived on your machine. Cowork sat in the middle, and a setting decided which side it landed on.

Then Anthropic merged chat and Cowork. And I realized I couldn't answer a basic question anymore. If I start something new in Claude today, where does it get saved?

It took 21 help articles, doc pages and release notes to get a straight answer. Here it is.

The short version

On a Pro or Max plan, starting Monday, October 6, everything you do in the Claude app is saved on Anthropic's servers. Chat, tasks, memory, files, scheduled work. All of it.

If you want something saved on your own machine, the answer is Claude Code. That's not me reading between the lines. It's Anthropic's own help article: if you need tasks to run locally, "Claude Code in the desktop app runs on your computer and keeps your folders and history there."

So the local option didn't disappear. It moved to a different product.

What changed, and when

July 10. Chat memory stopped being a daily summary. It's now a list of entries Claude reads and updates while you talk. My July post described the old version, so it was out of date the day I published it. Great start.

August 25. Memory started working across chat and Cowork. But only Cowork running in the cloud. Local Cowork sessions don't use memory at all.

September 16. Chat and Cowork became one product on Pro and Max. You don't pick anymore. You ask, and Claude decides whether it's a quick answer or a task.

October 6. New tasks on Pro and Max run in the cloud. The "Only on your computer" setting goes away. Scheduled tasks move to the cloud too. Tasks you already started locally stay where they are, and you can keep working in them until they're done.

The map

Where your Claude sessions and memory live, July to October 2026 Timeline map. Pro and Max: chat and Cowork merge on Sep 16 into Claude, cloud or local until Oct 5, cloud only from Oct 6. Team and Enterprise unchanged. Claude Code: terminal on your disk, Remote Control on your disk with a cloud transcript copy, web and routines in the cloud. Claude memory: chat only until Aug 25, then shared with cloud Cowork, and from Oct 6 every new task uses it. Claude Code Projects memory new on Sep 17. Bottom strip: what Enterprise admins can pull through the Compliance API; Claude Code web and routines are excluded; Team admins can't pull transcripts. your disk Anthropic's servers either · a setting decides long bar = no change Before the merge Now After October 6 Jul 7 – Sep 15 Sep 16 – Oct 5 Oct 6 onward CLAUDE APPPRO · MAX CLAUDE APPTEAM · ENTERPRISE CLAUDE CODEEVERY PLAN MEMORY FILES WHO CANPULL IT Chat Cowork Claude Claude Chat Cowork, still separate Terminal · desktop · IDE Remote Control Web · routines Claude memory Claude memory Claude memory Project memory (Claude app) Claude Code auto memory Synced Claude Code memory · private and team Claude Code Projects memory Your connected folders saved to your account cloud, or local if set chat + Cowork, one product cloud, or local if set saved to your account older local tasks stay put admin setting decides · no merge date yet ~/.claude/ · transcripts, settings, history.jsonl on your disk · a cloud copy of the transcript while connected Anthropic VMs · conversation kept on your account chat only · cloud Cowork joins Aug 25 local Claude tasks don't use it every new task uses it each Project keeps its own ~/.claude/projects/<repo>/memory/ · the only memory the memory page describes documented only in the Compliance API reference not launched yet new Sep 17 · beta on Pro and Max · read by every cloud thread stay on your disk · cloud sessions read them on Anthropic's servers Enterprise admins only, through the Compliance API. Team admins can't pull transcripts. Chat Cowork Claude Code Remote Control Claude Code yes yes, cloud and local terminal · yes yes, as a local session web, routines · no Team: cloud Cowork on by default, merge "will follow soon." Enterprise: cloud off by default, 30 days' notice before any change. Memory is off by default on both. bensimon.dev
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Green is your disk. Amber is Anthropic's servers. Half and half means a setting decides. A long bar means nothing changed in that row.

Look at the top section. Two boxes merge into one, and then that one goes solid amber. That's the whole story for the Claude app on Pro.

The questions I kept asking

Here's what annoyed me. Every answer I found came with a footnote that changed the answer.

Could a brand new session in Claude be saved locally? Until October 6, yes, if you've turned on "Only on your computer." From October 6, no. Not a chat, not a task.

Does it switch partway through? No. Where a session lives is decided when it starts. A chat that turns into a task is still in the cloud, because both run there now.

There's one exception, and it's in Claude Code. Remote Control lets you steer a local session from your phone. The work stays on your machine, but while you're connected, the transcript is also stored on Anthropic's servers. So that one picks up a cloud copy partway through, and it's the moment you connect.

What about my local folders? They stay on your disk. A cloud session can reach them through the desktop app, only while the app is open. But anything it opens gets read on Anthropic's servers, and the copy stays with the session until you delete it. So the folder is local. The reading isn't.

Does this apply to my work account? No. And this is the footnote that got me the most. Team and Enterprise "keep chat and Claude Cowork as they are today." They still have local Cowork. Team gets the merge "soon." Enterprise gets at least 30 days' notice. So two people at the same company, one on a personal Max plan and one on the Team seat, have different maps.

Even Claude Code isn't fully local

I wanted to end with a clean rule. Claude app is cloud, Claude Code is local. It doesn't hold.

Claude Code on the web runs on Anthropic's machines. Routines live in your account and start a fresh cloud session every run. Claude Code's new Projects, launched in beta on September 17, keep their memory in the cloud. Plugins you install in Claude sync down to Claude Code on your laptop, hooks and all. And turning off a connector in a Claude Code cloud thread turns it off in your claude.ai chats too.

So the terminal is local. Claude Code as a product isn't.

The memory page says one thing. The compliance docs say another.

This is the one that actually bugs me.

Anthropic's Claude Code memory page is clear. "Auto memory is machine-local." "Files are not shared across machines or cloud environments."

Anthropic's Compliance API reference logs an event when "a user's synced private Claude Code memory was updated or deleted on Anthropic servers." It logs another when "Claude Code team memory shared with the organization was updated." There are events for who can access team memory and for an org-wide team memory setting. And when you move a personal account into a work org, Anthropic lists "Claude Code memory" among the things that move with you.

So Claude Code has memory on Anthropic's servers, private and shared across your org. The only place Anthropic describes it is a list of audit events written for compliance teams. The page developers actually read about memory says the opposite.

I count six memories now. Claude memory. Project memory. Claude Code auto memory on your disk. Synced Claude Code memory. Team memory. Claude Code Projects memory. In July I counted two.

Cloud doesn't mean your company can see it

One more thing that runs backwards.

If you're on Enterprise, your admins can pull transcripts through the Compliance API. Chats, Cowork sessions, cloud or local. Even Claude Code sessions that ran on your laptop.

But not Claude Code sessions that ran on Anthropic's own servers. The compliance docs list Claude Code cloud sessions, routines included, as excluded. So your company can read the session on your machine and can't read the one in Anthropic's cloud.

And if you're on Team, none of this applies. The Compliance API is Enterprise only. Team admins can't pull transcripts at all.

What I got wrong in July

Chat memory moved. It's at Settings > Memory now, and it's a list of topics, not a profile.

The API has memory now. I called the API "the honest lane: one layer, and you own it." The memory tool still fits that, since your app stores the files. Managed Agents memory doesn't. Anthropic hosts it.

Cowork in the Compliance API. I wrote that Cowork wasn't in it. That was true in July. Anthropic added it in August.

What I'd do now

Stop asking which product you're in. Ask where it runs, where it's saved, and who can pull it. The product name doesn't tell you anymore.

If you need local, use Claude Code in a terminal. That's the one place on Pro where the record stays on your disk. Don't connect Remote Control if you want it to stay there.

Treat a connected folder like an upload. It stays on your disk, but anything a cloud session reads gets read on Anthropic's servers.

Check what your account pushes to your laptop. Synced plugins run hooks on your machine. syncClaudeAiPlugins: false turns that off.

Review every memory, not just one. Settings > Memory, each Project, /memory in Claude Code, and any Claude Code Project. If you run a Team or Enterprise org, find out whether team memory is on.

None of this is hidden. It's all documented. It's just documented in 21 places, split by plan, and one of those places contradicts another. I work in this stack every day and it still took me most of a day to draw one chart.

Sources: Use Claude's chat search and memory. Use Claude Cowork on web, desktop, and mobile. Use Claude Cowork on Team and Enterprise plans. Claude Cowork architecture overview. Move your personal account to a Team or Enterprise organization. Release notes. Cowork is now Claude (16 Sep 2026). Projects redesigned (17 Sep 2026). Claude Code docs: memory, Claude Code on the web, Projects, routines, Remote Control, data usage, plugin loading. Platform docs: release notes, compliance content, compliance sessions, compliance activities, memory tool, Managed Agents memory. All retrieved 3 Oct 2026.