User identity and local data changedthird-party/claude-desktop/data-storage
Nearest release: v2.1.319, published 21 hours before upstream edited the page. Shown because the two are within 24 hours of each other. Nothing here says the release caused the edit.
Upstream edited this page at 6 Nov 2026 22:40 UTC, give or take a minute or two: the time comes from Anthropic’s own sitemap rather than from a commit. This site recorded the change at 6 Nov 2026 23:07 UTC.
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4545Other standard OS accounts on the same machine can't read the files in this directory, but administrators can. On macOS and Linux, the app creates the directory with owner-only permissions. On Windows, the directory takes the permissions of the user's profile.
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47Apart from the user's sign-ins to plugin servers on Windows and Linux, the app encrypts stored sign-in tokens, API keys saved from the in-app configuration window, and similar secrets with the operating system's secure storage (see [Credentials](#credentials)). It doesn't encrypt conversations, settings, the rest of the locally applied configuration, or, on Windows and Linux, the user's sign-ins to plugin servers. Protection at rest for those files depends on the device's full-disk encryption, such as FileVault or BitLocker.
47The app doesn't encrypt conversations, settings, or the locally applied configuration other than its API keys. On Windows and Linux, it also doesn't encrypt the user's sign-ins to plugin servers or secret plugin settings entered in **Code**. Protection at rest for those files depends on the device's full-disk encryption, such as FileVault or BitLocker. The app encrypts some credentials with the operating system's secure storage, such as API keys saved from the in-app configuration window and the OAuth tokens of managed MCP servers (see [Credentials](#credentials)).
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4949The logs directory contains `main.log` (application and configuration-validation events), `ssh.log` (SSH connection events), `cowork_vm_node.log` (sandbox VM activity), `claude.ai-web.log` (renderer events), and `mcp.log` / `mcp-server-<name>.log` (MCP connection events).
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112112 * **macOS**: the login keychain, or that file if the keychain rejects the write
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114114 The tokens from a sign-in in **Code** are in [Claude Code's own credential store](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/authentication#credential-management).
115* **Secret plugin settings**: a plugin can ask the user for a value that it marks as sensitive, such as an API key. A value entered in **Code** is in [Claude Code's own credential store](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/authentication#credential-management):
116 * **Linux, and Windows by default**: an unencrypted file
117 * **macOS**: the login keychain, or that file if the keychain rejects the write
115118* **Credential-helper output**: held in memory for `inferenceCredentialHelperTtlSec` seconds, then discarded and re-fetched.
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117120### Transient credential files
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