cc-history

name	cc-history
description	Reference documentation for analyzing Claude Code conversation history files

Claude Code History Analysis

Reference documentation for querying and analyzing Claude Code's conversation history. Use shell commands and jq to extract information from JSONL conversation files.

Directory Structure

~/.claude/projects/{encoded-path}/
  |-- {session-uuid}.jsonl          # Main conversation
  |-- {session-uuid}/
      |-- subagents/
      |   |-- agent-{hash}.jsonl    # Subagent conversations
      |-- tool-results/             # Large tool outputs

Project Path Resolution

Convert working directory to project directory:

PROJECT_DIR="~/.claude/projects/$(echo "$PWD" | sed 's|^/|-|; s|/\.|--|g; s|/|-|g')"

Encoding rules:

• Leading / becomes -
• Regular / becomes -
• /. (hidden directory) becomes --

Examples:

• /Users/bill/.claude -> -Users-bill--claude
• /Users/bill/git/myproject -> -Users-bill-git-myproject

Message Types

Type	Description
user	User input messages
assistant	Model responses (thinking, tool_use, text)
system	System messages
queue-operation	Background task notifications (subagent done)

Message Structure

Each line in a JSONL file is a message object:

{
  "type": "assistant",
  "uuid": "abc123",
  "parentUuid": "xyz789",
  "timestamp": "2025-01-15T19:39:16.000Z",
  "sessionId": "session-uuid",
  "message": {
    "role": "assistant",
    "content": [...],
    "usage": {
      "input_tokens": 20000,
      "output_tokens": 500,
      "cache_read_input_tokens": 15000,
      "cache_creation_input_tokens": 5000
    }
  }
}

Assistant message content blocks:

• type: "thinking" - Model thinking (has thinking field)
• type: "tool_use" - Tool invocation (has name, input fields)
• type: "text" - Text response (has text field)

Common Queries

Find Conversations

# List by modification time (most recent first)
ls -lt "$PROJECT_DIR"/*.jsonl

# Find by date
ls -la "$PROJECT_DIR"/*.jsonl | grep "Jan 15"

# Find by content
grep -l "search term" "$PROJECT_DIR"/*.jsonl

Extract Messages

# Get message by line number (1-indexed)
sed -n '42p' file.jsonl | jq .

# Get message by uuid
jq -c 'select(.uuid=="abc123")' file.jsonl

# All user messages
jq -c 'select(.type=="user")' file.jsonl

# All assistant messages
jq -c 'select(.type=="assistant")' file.jsonl

Tool Call Analysis

# List all tool calls
jq -c 'select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="tool_use") | {name, input}' file.jsonl

# Count tool calls by name
jq -c 'select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="tool_use") | .name' file.jsonl | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

# Find specific tool calls
jq -c 'select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="tool_use" and .name=="Bash")' file.jsonl

Skill Invocation Detection

Pattern: python -m skills\.([a-z_]+)\.

# Find all skill invocations
grep -oE "python3 -m skills\.[a-z_]+" file.jsonl | sort -u

# Find conversations using a specific skill
grep -l "python3 -m skills\.planner\." "$PROJECT_DIR"/*.jsonl

Token Usage

# Total tokens in conversation
jq -s '[.[].message.usage? | select(.) | .input_tokens + .output_tokens] | add' file.jsonl

# Token breakdown
jq -s '[.[].message.usage? | select(.)] | {
  input: (map(.input_tokens) | add),
  output: (map(.output_tokens) | add),
  cached: (map(.cache_read_input_tokens // 0) | add)
}' file.jsonl

# Token progression over time
jq -c 'select(.type=="assistant") | {ts: .timestamp[11:19], inp: .message.usage.input_tokens, out: .message.usage.output_tokens}' file.jsonl

Taxonomy Aggregation

# Count messages by type
jq -s 'group_by(.type) | map({type: .[0].type, count: length})' file.jsonl

# Character count in user messages
jq -s '[.[] | select(.type=="user") | .message.content | length] | add' file.jsonl

# Thinking block character count
jq -s '[.[] | select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="thinking") | .thinking | length] | add' file.jsonl

Subagent Analysis

# List subagents for a session
ls "${SESSION_DIR}/subagents/"

# Get subagent task description (first user message)
jq -c 'select(.type=="user") | .message.content' agent-*.jsonl | head -1

# Find Task tool calls in parent (these spawn subagents)
jq -c 'select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="tool_use" and .name=="Task") | .input' file.jsonl

Conversation Branching

Each .jsonl file contains the entire conversation tree (all branches), not separate files per branch. Branching is tracked via parentUuid:

• When user goes back in history and issues a new command, the new message gets the same parentUuid as where they branched from
• Multiple messages sharing the same parentUuid = sibling branches (fork point)

Detecting Branch Points

# Find all fork points (messages with multiple children)
jq -s 'group_by(.parentUuid) | map(select(length > 1)) | .[] | {
  parentUuid: .[0].parentUuid,
  branches: length,
  timestamps: [.[].timestamp]
}' file.jsonl

# Show siblings at a known fork point
FORK_POINT="parent-uuid-here"
jq -c --arg fp "$FORK_POINT" 'select(.parentUuid==$fp) | {uuid, ts: .timestamp, preview: (.message.content | tostring)[:100]}' file.jsonl

Extracting a Single Branch

To filter for exactly one branch, find a unique identifier in that branch, then walk the ancestor chain back to root.

Step 1: Find target message uuid

# By unique content
TARGET=$(jq -r 'select(.message.content | tostring | contains("unique-identifier")) | .uuid' file.jsonl | tail -1)

# By timestamp prefix
TARGET=$(jq -r 'select(.timestamp | startswith("2026-01-28T11:23")) | .uuid' file.jsonl | head -1)

Step 2: Extract branch as JSONL stream

# Outputs one message per line (JSONL), oldest first
extract_branch() {
  jq -c -s --arg target "$1" '
    (map({(.uuid): .}) | add) as $lookup |
    {chain: [], current: $target} |
    until(.current == null or ($lookup[.current] | not);
      ($lookup[.current]) as $msg |
      .chain += [$msg] |
      .current = $msg.parentUuid
    ) |
    .chain | reverse | .[]
  ' "$2"
}

# Usage: extract_branch <target-uuid> <file>
extract_branch "$TARGET" file.jsonl | jq -s 'length'
extract_branch "$TARGET" file.jsonl | jq 'select(.type=="user")'

Step 3: Common branch queries

# Message count
extract_branch "$TARGET" file.jsonl | jq -s 'length'

# User messages only
extract_branch "$TARGET" file.jsonl | jq 'select(.type=="user")'

# Tool calls
extract_branch "$TARGET" file.jsonl | jq 'select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="tool_use") | {name}'

# First and last messages (verify correct branch)
extract_branch "$TARGET" file.jsonl | jq -s '[.[0], .[-1]] | .[] | {type, ts: .timestamp}'

Workflow: Pinpoint and Explore

# 1. Find conversation file
FILE=$(grep -l "unique-identifier" "$PROJECT_DIR"/*.jsonl)

# 2. Find matching messages (may show multiple branches)
jq -c 'select(.message.content | tostring | contains("unique-identifier")) | {uuid, ts: .timestamp, parentUuid}' "$FILE"

# 3. Pick target uuid from desired branch, then query
TARGET="uuid-from-step-2"
extract_branch "$TARGET" "$FILE" | jq 'select(.type=="user") | .message.content'

Correlation

Subagent files (agent-{hash}.jsonl) don't link directly to parent Task calls. To correlate:

1. List all subagent files under {session}/subagents/
2. Read first user message of each for task description
3. Match description to Task tool_use blocks in parent conversation