/session-search

name: session-search
description: For CLI agents WITHOUT subagent support (e.g., Codex CLI). Search previous code agent sessions for specific work, decisions, or code patterns.

> **If you are Claude Code:** Do NOT use this skill directly. Use the > `session-searcher` subagent via the Task tool instead - it handles this more > efficiently without polluting your context.

session-search

Search and find previous code agent sessions (Claude-Code or Codex-CLI) for specific work, decisions, or code patterns.

Workflow

1. **Understand the query**: Identify what the user is looking for (code patterns, decisions, specific work, design direction) 2. **Search with aichat**: Run `aichat search --json -n 10 "[query]"` (use `-g "project"` to filter by project) 3. **Parse results**: Use `jq` to extract fields from JSONL output (session_id, project, created, snippet, file_path) 4. **Deep dive if needed**: Read session files at `~/.claude/projects/*/[session-id].jsonl` (max 3 files) 5. **Summarize**: Return a focused summary with key findings and references

Run `aichat search --help` to see all options (date filters, branch filters, etc.) and JSONL field names.

Output Format

Return a concise summary containing:

1. **Key Findings**: 2-3 bullet points answering the query 2. **Relevant Sessions**: Session IDs and dates for reference 3. **Specific Content**: Code snippets or quotes if directly relevant

Format as clean markdown, not raw JSON.

Example

Query: "Find sessions where we discussed authentication design"

aichat search --json -n 10 "authentication design"

Summary:

• **Session abc123** (Dec 10): Discussed JWT vs session-based auth, decided on JWT
• **Session def456** (Dec 8): Implemented refresh token rotation pattern

Constraints

• ALWAYS use `--json` flag with aichat search (otherwise it spawns interactive UI)
• NEVER return raw JSON output to the user - summarize and distill findings
• NEVER read more than 3 session files per query
• If no results found, suggest alternative search terms
• ONLY report information directly observed in files - never infer or extrapolate

Error Handling

If `aichat search` command fails or is not found, ask user to install:

uv tool install claude-code-tools   # Python package
cargo install aichat-search         # Rust search TUI

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 18+ (for action menus)
• Rust/Cargo (for aichat-search)

If user doesn't have uv or cargo:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh           # uv
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh  # Rust