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/memory:search [query]

Search Claude Code's session history to find past decisions, discussions, and context.

How It Works

Claude Code automatically stores complete session history in ~/.claude/projects/. This command searches that history to recover:

• Past decisions and their rationale
• Discussions about specific topics
• Auto-compact summaries
• Tool calls and their results

Usage

/memory:search "authentication approach"
/memory:search "database schema" --summaries-only
/memory:search "bug fix" --recent 5

Arguments

• query - Keywords to search for (required)
• --summaries-only - Only search auto-compact summaries (faster, less detail)
• --recent N - Only search N most recent sessions (default: 20)

Implementation

When invoked, execute:

#!/bin/bash
QUERY="$1"
PROJECT_DIR=$(pwd)
CLAUDE_PROJECT="-$(echo "$PROJECT_DIR" | sed 's|^/||; s|/|-|g')"
SESSION_DIR="$HOME/.claude/projects/$CLAUDE_PROJECT"

if [ ! -d "$SESSION_DIR" ]; then
    echo "No session history found for this project."
    exit 1
fi

echo "Searching session history for: $QUERY"
echo ""

# Search summaries first (fast overview)
echo "## Relevant Summaries"
for f in $(ls -t "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl | head -20); do
    grep -i "$QUERY" "$f" 2>/dev/null | \
        jq -r 'select(.type=="summary") | .summary' 2>/dev/null
done | sort -u | head -15

echo ""
echo "## Key Discussions"

# Search user messages and assistant responses
for f in $(ls -t "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl | head -10); do
    DATE=$(stat -c %y "$f" | cut -d' ' -f1)

    # Check if file matches
    if grep -qi "$QUERY" "$f"; then
        echo ""
        echo "### Session: $DATE"

        # Extract relevant assistant text (decisions, recommendations)
        grep -i "$QUERY" "$f" | \
            jq -r 'select(.type=="assistant") | .message.content[]? |
                   select(.type=="text") | .text' 2>/dev/null | \
            grep -i "$QUERY" | \
            grep -iE "(decided|chose|recommend|should|will use|verdict|conclusion|the answer|solution)" | \
            head -5
    fi
done