Capturing AI conversations
Good answers from an AI chat are easy to lose in a long history. The browser extension saves the whole conversation as one entry, with every message, so you can search it, link it to your work and come back to it later.
You need the extension installed and connected first. See Browser extension: install and connect.
Which chats it can save
| Service | Addresses it recognises | Type it sets |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | chatgpt.com and chat.openai.com | ChatGPT |
| Claude | claude.ai | Claude |
| Perplexity | perplexity.ai | Perplexity |
The extension sets the type from the address when the popup opens. On any other AI chat site it saves the page as a normal link, with its title and address but not the conversation.
Save a conversation
- Open the conversation in your browser.
- Scroll from the top to the bottom once. Long chats load their messages as you scroll, and the extension can only save the messages the page has loaded.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+4 (Cmd+Shift+4 on a Mac), or click the Ultrathink icon.
- Check the type says ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity.
- Add a note if you want: what you were trying to work out, or which answer mattered.
- Let the popup save itself after three seconds, or click away to save straight away.
The conversation is read from the page at the moment it saves. Anything you add to the chat afterwards is not in the entry. Save it again if the conversation moves on.
What gets saved
| Part | What you get |
|---|---|
| Title | The conversation’s title, as the chat site shows it |
| Address | A link back to the conversation |
| Conversation | Every loaded message as plain text, each marked with who said it |
| Your note | Kept separately from the conversation |
Messages are saved as plain text. Formatting such as headings, tables and code layout is not kept, though the words are.
- ChatGPT messages are marked as yours or the assistant’s.
- Claude messages are marked as yours or Claude’s.
- Perplexity saves your questions and its answers. The sources Perplexity lists under an answer are not saved.
Where to find it
The entry appears at the top of All items in the web app. Open it and the detail panel shows:
- AI summary: what the conversation covered and what it concluded.
- Conversation: the messages, laid out turn by turn.
- Topics and people the AI picked out.
The AI uses a prompt written for each service. You can see and change them in Settings > Entities, under Conversation prompts: ChatGPT conversation prompt, Claude.ai conversation prompt and Perplexity search prompt. How the AI files your entries explains how prompts work.
To see every conversation from one service, filter All items by type. See Search and filters.
Save just one answer
You do not have to save the whole chat. Highlight the answer you want and press Ctrl+Shift+4. The popup shows your selection and saves it as a Snippet, with a link back to the conversation.
This works well for a single useful reply in a long, wandering thread.
Find answers again
Every word of a saved conversation is part of the entry, so typing in the search bar at the top of the web app finds conversations by their content as well as their title.
On the Pro plan, you can also ask a question in plain words and AI search answers from your saved entries, conversations included. See AI search.
Tips
- Save at a natural end: when the chat has reached an answer, not halfway through.
- Write a one-line note on why it mattered. Your future self will search for that, not for the chat’s title.
- Add a topic for the project the conversation was for, so it sits with the rest of that work.
- For very long chats, consider saving the two or three key answers as snippets instead.
If something goes wrong
| Problem | What to try |
|---|---|
| Only part of the conversation was saved | Scroll through the whole chat so every message loads, then save again |
| The type says Link | Check the address is one in the table above. If it is, pick the right type in the list before the popup saves |
| Nothing was saved | Look for a red ! on the extension icon and open the popup to retry. See Browser extension: install and connect |
| The messages came out jumbled | Chat sites change their pages from time to time. Save the key answers as snippets, and let us know at me@cmw.email |