session-logs

name	session-logs
description	Search and analyze your own session logs (older/parent conversations) using jq.
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"📜","requires":{"bins":"[Truncated]"}}}

session-logs

Search your complete conversation history stored in session JSONL files. Use this when a user references older/parent conversations or asks what was said before.

Trigger

Use this skill when the user asks about prior chats, parent conversations, or historical context that isn't in memory files.

Location

Session logs live at: ~/.casterly/sessions/

• <session-key>.jsonl - Full conversation transcript per session
• Session keys follow pattern: <channel>:main, <channel>:peer:<id>, or <channel>:channel:<id>

Structure

Each .jsonl file contains:

Line 1 (metadata):

• key: Session identifier
• channel: Channel type (imessage, cli, etc.)
• createdAt: When session started
• lastActiveAt: Last activity timestamp
• totalMessages: Total message count

Subsequent lines (messages):

• role: "user", "assistant", or "system"
• content: Message text (string)
• timestamp: ISO timestamp
• sender: For user messages, the sender identifier (optional)

Common Queries

List all sessions by date and size

for f in ~/.casterly/sessions/*.jsonl; do
  date=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.createdAt' | cut -dT -f1)
  size=$(ls -lh "$f" | awk '{print $5}')
  echo "$date $size $(basename $f)"
done | sort -r

Find sessions from a specific day

for f in ~/.casterly/sessions/*.jsonl; do
  head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.createdAt' | grep -q "2026-01-31" && echo "$f"
done

Extract user messages from a session

jq -r 'select(.role == "user") | .content' <session>.jsonl

Extract assistant messages from a session

jq -r 'select(.role == "assistant") | .content' <session>.jsonl

Search for keyword in assistant responses

jq -r 'select(.role == "assistant") | .content' <session>.jsonl | rg -i "keyword"

Search for keyword in user messages

jq -r 'select(.role == "user") | .content' <session>.jsonl | rg -i "keyword"

Get session metadata

head -1 <session>.jsonl | jq '.'

Count messages in a session

jq -s '{
  total: (length - 1),
  user: [.[] | select(.role == "user")] | length,
  assistant: [.[] | select(.role == "assistant")] | length,
  system: [.[] | select(.role == "system")] | length,
  first: .[1].timestamp,
  last: .[-1].timestamp
}' <session>.jsonl

Get messages from a specific sender

jq -r 'select(.sender == "[phone]") | .content' <session>.jsonl

List all unique senders in a session

jq -r 'select(.sender) | .sender' <session>.jsonl | sort -u

Get conversation timeline

jq -r 'select(.role) | "\(.timestamp | split("T")[1] | split(".")[0]) [\(.role)]: \(.content | .[0:80])"' <session>.jsonl

Search across ALL sessions for a phrase

rg -l "phrase" ~/.casterly/sessions/*.jsonl

Search with context

rg -C 2 "phrase" ~/.casterly/sessions/*.jsonl

Find sessions by channel type

for f in ~/.casterly/sessions/*.jsonl; do
  channel=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.channel')
  [[ "$channel" == "imessage" ]] && echo "$f"
done

Get session activity summary

for f in ~/.casterly/sessions/*.jsonl; do
  meta=$(head -1 "$f")
  key=$(echo "$meta" | jq -r '.key')
  total=$(echo "$meta" | jq -r '.totalMessages')
  last=$(echo "$meta" | jq -r '.lastActiveAt' | cut -dT -f1)
  echo "$last $total messages - $key"
done | sort -r

Tips

• Sessions are append-only JSONL (one JSON object per line)
• First line is always metadata, skip it for message queries using tail -n +2
• Large sessions can be several MB - use head/tail for sampling
• Session keys are sanitized for filesystem (special chars become _)
• Daily reset at 4 AM by default - older sessions may be archived

Fast text-only hint (skip metadata line)

tail -n +2 ~/.casterly/sessions/<key>.jsonl | jq -r 'select(.role) | .content' | rg 'keyword'

Example: Full conversation export

tail -n +2 <session>.jsonl | jq -r '"\(.role | ascii_upcase): \(.content)\n"'