By default, what happens to the conversation history when a user starts a new API call to Claude?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation and Infographic
Every API call to Claude starts fresh — like calling a very knowledgeable friend who has amnesia between calls. You have to remind them what you talked about last time.
Full explanation below image
Full Explanation
Claude's API is stateless by design. Each API call is independent, and Claude has no built-in mechanism to remember previous interactions. To maintain conversation continuity, developers must explicitly include prior messages in the 'messages' array of each API request. This is a key architectural pattern when building conversational applications. Option A is false — there is no automatic cross-session memory. Option B is false — no 24-hour retention exists. Option D is false — no built-in conversation database endpoint exists in the Anthropic API.