| name | search-conversations |
| description | Deterministic keyword retrieval (ILIKE) over raw L0 messages. Use when the user references an exact term, name, or phrase they remember writing. |
| layer | L1 |
| reads | ["L0.all_conversations"] |
| writes | [] |
| citations | output-is-citation |
| determinism | pure-function |
| allowed-tools | mcp__my-brain__search_conversations |
search-conversations — L1 keyword retrieval
Framework context
L1 skill paired with semantic-search. Where semantic-search operates on L1 embeddings, search-conversations operates on L0 text directly via DuckDB ILIKE. Deterministic, idempotent, pure function of (query, role filter, corpus).
When to invoke
- User cites an exact term they remember ("what did I say about Persofi", "when I mentioned Ramchal")
- Proper nouns — names, project codewords, file paths, function names
- When semantic search is likely to dilute the signal (e.g., a unique proper noun will ILIKE-match cleanly)
- Empty
term + role="user" → returns recent user questions (special mode)
Input
term: str = "" # keyword to match via ILIKE (case-insensitive)
limit: int = 15
role: str | None # optional filter: "user" | "assistant"
Output contract
Markdown table with:
| Date | Source | Role | conv_id | Preview (200ch) |
|------------|-------------|-------|---------|-----------------|
Ordered by created DESC (newest first). Each row IS a citation.
Does NOT do
- Fuzzy matching (that's
semantic-search's job)
- Synthesize preview content (200ch substring only, no paraphrase)
- Merge duplicate conversation IDs (consumers do that at L2)
- Escape
% or _ in the query (user's literal term is passed through ILIKE pattern with leading+trailing %)
Execution
Internally wraps brain_mcp.server.tools_conversations.search_conversations(term, limit, role). SQL: WHERE content ILIKE ? [AND role = ?] ORDER BY created DESC LIMIT ?.
Verification checklist
