Why don’t my earlier Claude Code sessions show up in Tares after I installed the plugin?

Tares captures Claude Code sessions forward only, so only sessions you run after you install the plugin appear. Transcripts already on disk are not backfilled. To confirm capture works, start a new session, then look under the session key in Explore and in the source’s Recent events.

How it works

The Tares plugin for Claude Code ships each session’s transcript to the Tares daemon over HTTP while the session runs. Hooks send new transcript lines to /ingest/claude_code on each prompt, each tool use and at session end. Capture starts at install time, and nothing reads the transcript files that were already on your machine.

This is why your earlier sessions are missing:

• The plugin only streams lines as they are written during a session it can see.
• Existing transcripts on disk are not imported, so there is no backfill of earlier work.
• The plugin creates the claude_code push source on the daemon the first time it runs. You do not set up the source by hand.

Each message becomes one event, keyed by session. The labels are project, branch and model, plus type for the message type and sidechain for sub-agent messages. Sub-agents roll up into the same source. Because the data plane is queryable like any other source, you can correlate what the agent did with what your systems did from the moment capture begins.

The Claude Code connector page covers the full set of fields and labels.

Set it up

Check that new sessions are arriving. If they are, the missing history is expected and nothing is broken.

1. Install the plugin in Claude Code if you have not yet:

   /plugin marketplace add glassflow/tares

   /plugin install tares@tares

   You can also use the console page at Sources, Add source, claude_code. It shows the install command wired to your instance’s URL.

2. Answer the install prompts. Set Tares URL to your daemon’s base URL. The default http://127.0.0.1:8787 matches tares up. Leave Stream this session into Tares on, which is the default. If this toggle is off, nothing is captured.

3. On Tares Cloud, sign in from the machine that runs Claude Code. Pick your workspace in the browser, and the plugin picks up the key this machine gets:

   tares login

   Then set MCP endpoint to the address tares login prints. A Tares URL or Access token you set by hand wins over the login.

4. Start a new Claude Code session and do some work. Sessions from before the install will not show.

5. In the console, open Explore. Sessions are listed under the session key, so your new session appears there.

6. Open the source’s Recent events. Messages show up there as they ship.

7. With the plugin installed, you can also ask the session itself:

   Use tares to show me my current session’s timeline.

If your new session shows in Explore and Recent events, capture works. The sessions you ran before the install were never sent, and they will not appear.

What you get

• A clear picture of what is captured: every session from the install onward, and no earlier transcripts.
• A fast check for any new session. Find it under the session key in Explore, and watch messages arrive in Recent events.
• One event per message, with project, branch and model labels and token-usage fields, so you can filter and correlate.
• Secret redaction before storage. redact is on by default and runs server-side in the connector, so it applies before anything is stored. Thinking blocks stay out of the rendered text unless you turn on include_thinking.
• Read-back through the same install. The plugin connects the session to the MCP endpoint, so the agent can read its own history back from the point capture began.

When something else fits

• If you need the content of a past session, open the transcript file on your machine. Tares does not import it.
• If a new session does not appear, recheck the Tares URL, the capture toggle and, on a secured instance, the access token. On Tares Cloud, rerun tares login and confirm the MCP endpoint it prints.
• If you want to capture something other than Claude Code sessions, use another connector from the connector pages, such as the webhook connector.

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