history

name	history
description	Search Claude Code conversation history on disk for a given query. Use when the user asks to find something from a previous conversation, check what was discussed before, or recover lost context.

Search Conversation History

Search through Claude Code conversation history JSONL files for the given query.

Instructions

1. Identify the project history directory. For the current working directory, the history path is: ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/.history/

   The project key is derived from the working directory path with slashes replaced by dashes. For example:

   • /Users/jakebarnby/Local/sshoo → -Users-jakebarnby-Local-sshoo

   List .history/*.jsonl files sorted by modification time (newest first):

   ls -t ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/.history/*.jsonl
   

2. Search the JSONL files for the user's query using grep:

   grep -l "<query>" ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/.history/*.jsonl
   

   Then for matching files, extract surrounding context:

   grep -C 2 "<query>" <file> | head -100
   

3. Parse and present results:

   • Show which session file(s) matched
   • Show the relevant conversation context around each match
   • If the query relates to code, try to extract the actual code blocks
   • Summarize findings concisely

4. For every matching session, output a resume command. The session ID is the JSONL filename without the extension. Format:

   claude --dangerously-skip-permissions --resume <session-id>
   

   For example, if the matching file is 8afa50e5.jsonl, output:

   claude --resume 8afa50e5
   

   List these at the end of the output grouped under a "Resume" heading, with a one-line description of what each session was about (infer from the first few lines of the file or from the matched context).

Arguments

The user's search query is passed as the skill argument. For example:

• /history? dependabot — search for dependabot-related discussions
• /history? billing UI revert — search for when billing UI was reverted
• /history? "libs.versions.toml" — search for dependency version discussions

Tips

• JSONL files can be very large. Use grep to find matching files first, then read only relevant sections.
• Recent conversations are in newer files (sort by mtime).
• Each JSONL line is a complete JSON message — parse it to extract the actual text content if needed.
• If too many results, prioritize the most recent session files.