session-logs

name	session-logs
description	Search and analyze past Claude Code session logs using jq and ripgrep (rg). Find conversations by date, keyword, or topic. Extract decisions, code changes, and key moments from session history. Use when user says "search past sessions", "what did we discuss about X", "find old conversation", or "session history".
allowed-tools	["Bash","Read","Write"]
model	haiku
user-invocable	true
when_to_use	When user wants to find or review past conversation sessions, search for a previously discussed topic, or analyze session history. Triggers: "search past sessions", "find conversation about", "what did we discuss", "session history", "past logs", "previous conversation", "find when we talked about".
argument-hint	<action: list|search|view|analyze> [query] [--date YYYY-MM-DD] [--limit N]

Session Logs

Search and analyze past Claude Code session and conversation logs using jq and rg (ripgrep). No external CLI beyond jq and rg needed.

Prerequisites

# Install jq (JSON processor)
brew install jq          # macOS
sudo apt install jq      # Ubuntu/Debian

# Install ripgrep
brew install ripgrep     # macOS
sudo apt install ripgrep # Ubuntu/Debian

# Verify
jq --version && rg --version

Common Log Locations

Location	Description
~/.claude/	Claude Code settings and memory
~/.claude/projects/	Per-project session data
workspace/	Saved session outputs
memory/	Agent memory files

Commands

List recent session files:

ls -lt ~/.claude/projects/ | head -20

Search session logs by keyword:

rg "keyword" ~/.claude/projects/ --type json -l

Search with context lines:

rg -C 3 "keyword" ~/.claude/projects/ --type json

Search memory files:

rg "topic" memory/ -l
rg -i "topic" memory/learned-today.md

Parse JSONL session file:

# Show all user messages from a session file
cat <session-file.jsonl> | jq -r 'select(.role=="user") | .content'

# Show assistant messages
cat <session-file.jsonl> | jq -r 'select(.role=="assistant") | .content[:200]'

# Extract tool uses
cat <session-file.jsonl> | jq -r 'select(.type=="tool_use") | {name, input}'

Search by date range:

# Find files modified in the last 7 days
find ~/.claude/projects/ -name "*.json" -newer $(date -d "7 days ago" +%Y-%m-%d 2>/dev/null || date -v-7d +%Y-%m-%d) 2>/dev/null

# macOS: files from today
find ~/.claude/projects/ -name "*.json" -newer $(date -v-1d +%Y-%m-%d)

Search workspace saved outputs:

rg -i "keyword" workspace/ -l
rg -i -C 2 "keyword" workspace/

Analyze memory for a topic:

rg -i "keyword" memory/ --type md

Usage Examples

Find past discussion about a feature:

rg -i "authentication" memory/ workspace/ --type md -l

Search all session files for a decision:

rg -i "decided to use" ~/.claude/projects/ --type json -C 2 | head -40

Extract key points from a session file:

# Summarize assistant responses from a specific session
jq -r 'select(.role=="assistant") | .content' <session.jsonl> | head -100

Review today's memory learnings:

cat memory/learned-today.md

Rules

• Always check if jq and rg are installed first before running searches
• If not installed, show the install commands and stop
• Never read or expose raw API keys, tokens, or credentials found in logs
• Redact sensitive patterns (tokens, passwords, API keys) before showing output
• Default to searching memory/ and workspace/ first (faster); escalate to ~/.claude/projects/ if needed
• When results are large, save to workspace/session-search-<query>.md and summarize inline
• Limit inline output to 20-30 lines; always offer to save full results to workspace
• Confirm searches with: "Found matches for ''"