Persistent Task Lists

By default, Claude Code's task lists disappear when you start a new session or use /clear. Persistent task lists change that - your tasks survive across sessions.

This matters for complex, multi-step work like audits, content creation, or any project that spans multiple conversations.

How to Enable

Ask Claude to set it up:

Enable persistent task lists for my brain

Claude will add the necessary configuration to your .claude/settings.local.json file.

Under the hood, it adds:

{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_TASK_LIST_ID": "brain"
  }
}

How It Works

Once enabled:

• Tasks persist across sessions, restarts, and /clear commands
• Progress is saved - if you start a 5-step audit and stop at step 3, the next session picks up where you left off
• Multiple projects can have their own task lists (change the ID)

When It's Useful

• Multi-session audits - Start a Google Ads audit today, finish it tomorrow
• Content production - Track progress across draft, review, publish stages
• Complex builds - Building a new skill or feature over several sessions
• Weekly workflows - Recurring tasks that you chip away at

Without Persistent Tasks

Without this feature, every time you start a new Claude Code session, the task list starts fresh. This isn't a problem for quick tasks, but for anything that takes more than one session, you lose context.

Troubleshooting

Tasks not persisting - Make sure you restarted Claude Code after adding the configuration. Close and reopen the terminal, then type claude.

Want separate task lists - Change the CLAUDE_CODE_TASK_LIST_ID value to a different string for different projects.