/investigating-replay

name: investigating-replay
description: >
  Investigates a session recording by gathering metadata, person profile,
  same-session events, and linked error tracking issues in one pass.
  Use when a user provides a recording or session ID and wants to understand
  what happened — who the user was, what they did, what errors occurred,
  and whether there are related error tracking issues. Replaces the manual
  chain of session-recording-get, persons-retrieve, execute-sql, and
  query-error-tracking-issues-list.

Investigating a session recording

When a user asks "what happened in this session?" or provides a recording/session ID to investigate, gather all relevant context in parallel rather than making them ask for each piece.

Available tools

| Tool | Purpose | | ------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- | | `posthog:session-recording-get` | Recording metadata (duration, counts, status) | | `posthog:persons-retrieve` | Person profile (properties, distinct IDs) | | `posthog:execute-sql` | Query events, errors, and page views in session | | `posthog:query-error-tracking-issues-list` | Find error tracking issues linked to the session | | `posthog:vision-observations-list` | Check for an existing Replay Vision AI summary | | `posthog:vision-scanners-list` | Find summarizer scanners (`scanner_type=summarizer`) | | `posthog:vision-scanners-scan-session` | Run a summarizer scanner on the session (slow, optional) | | `posthog:vision-scanners-create` | Create a temporary summarizer scanner (ask first) | | `posthog:vision-scanners-delete` | Delete a temporary scanner after summarizing |

Workflow

Step 1 — Get recording metadata and person profile

Start with the recording to get metadata and the person's distinct ID:

posthog:session-recording-get
{
  "id": "<session_id>"
}

The recording `id` and the event `$session_id` are the same value. It selects the recording here and the same-session events in Step 2. The response includes `distinct_id`, `person`, `start_time`, `end_time`, duration, interaction counts, console error counts, and viewing status. Use the `distinct_id` to fetch the full person profile:

posthog:persons-retrieve
{
  "id": "<person_uuid_from_recording>"
}

Step 2 — Query same-session events

Use the recording `id` from Step 1 as the `$session_id` value. Get the timeline of what the user did during the session:

posthog:execute-sql
SELECT
    timestamp,
    event,
    properties.$current_url AS url,
    properties.$browser AS browser,
    properties.$os AS os,
    properties.$device_type AS device_type,
    properties.$screen_width AS screen_width
FROM events
WHERE $session_id = '<session_id>'
ORDER BY timestamp ASC
LIMIT 200

For sessions with many events, focus on the most informative ones:

posthog:execute-sql
SELECT
    timestamp,
    event,
    properties.$current_url AS url,
    if(event = '$exception', properties.$exception_values[1], null) AS exception_message,
    if(event = '$exception', properties.$exception_types[1], null) AS exception_type
FROM events
WHERE $session_id = '<session_id>'
    AND event IN ('$pageview', '$pageleave', '$autocapture', '$exception', '$rageclick')
ORDER BY timestamp ASC
LIMIT 100

No rows? Recover the event session ID

The recording `id` is the session ID. No rows means the session's events were ingested without it. Find candidates from the person's events in the recording window, padded by 100 seconds like the replay events query. `person_id` covers all of the person's distinct IDs:

posthog:execute-sql
SELECT
    properties.$session_id AS session_id,
    count() AS event_count,
    min(timestamp) AS first_seen,
    max(timestamp) AS last_seen
FROM events
WHERE person_id = '<person_uuid>'
    AND timestamp >= toDateTime('<start_time>') - INTERVAL 100 SECOND
    AND timestamp <= toDateTime('<end_time>') + INTERVAL 100 SECOND
    AND properties.$session_id IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY session_id
ORDER BY event_count DESC
LIMIT 10

Continue only when one session ID clearly matches. Use it for the Step 2 and Step 3 queries only. The replay URL and all Replay Vision calls take the recording `id`.

Step 3 — Check for linked error tracking issues

If the recording has console errors or exceptions, find related error tracking issues:

posthog:execute-sql
SELECT DISTINCT
    properties.$exception_fingerprint AS fingerprint,
    properties.$exception_types[1] AS type,
    properties.$exception_values[1] AS message,
    count() AS occurrences
FROM events
WHERE $session_id = '<session_id>'
    AND event = '$exception'
GROUP BY fingerprint, type, message
ORDER BY occurrences DESC
LIMIT 10

If fingerprints are found, search for the corresponding error tracking issues to provide links and status:

posthog:query-error-tracking-issues-list
{
  "searchQuery": "<exception_type or message>"
}

Step 4 — Synthesize the investigation

Present the findings as a coherent narrative:

1. **Who** — person properties (name, email, country, plan, etc.) 2. **What** — sequence of pages visited and key actions taken 3. **Problems** — exceptions, console errors, rage clicks, and their frequency 4. **Related issues** — linked error tracking issues with their status (active/resolved) 5. **Context** — session duration, device/browser, activity score

Optional: AI summary via Replay Vision

If the user wants a deeper analysis without reading through events manually, offer a Replay Vision summary. Follow "check-then-scan" — don't scan blindly, a scanner can only observe a given session once.

1. **Check for an existing summary.** A scheduled scanner may alre