Agent History Skill
Setup
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills cp agent-history SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/ chmod +x ~/.claude/skills/agent-history
Once installed, Claude Code will automatically use this skill when you ask about past conversations, usage patterns, or want to search your history.
Browse, search, and analyze Claude Code conversation history using the agent-history CLI tool.
When to Activate
- •User asks about past conversations: "what did we discuss about X", "find that conversation where we..."
- •User wants to find previous solutions: "how did we fix that error", "what approach did we use for..."
- •User asks about usage patterns: "how much time did I spend", "which tools do I use most"
- •User wants to export or backup: "export my conversations", "backup this project's history"
- •User references earlier sessions: "yesterday we talked about", "last week's work on..."
Available Commands
List Sessions
# Current workspace agent-history lss # All sources (local + WSL + Windows + remotes) agent-history lss --ah # Filter by workspace pattern agent-history lss myproject # Filter by date agent-history lss --since 2025-11-01 agent-history lss --since 2025-11-01 --until 2025-11-30
Export to Markdown
# Export current workspace sessions agent-history export # Export specific workspace agent-history export myproject # Export with date filter agent-history export --since 2025-11-24 # Export minimal (no metadata, cleaner for reading) agent-history export --minimal # Export to specific directory agent-history export -o /tmp/history-export
Usage Statistics
# Summary dashboard agent-history stats # Time tracking (work hours per day) agent-history stats --time # Tool usage breakdown agent-history stats --tools # Model usage agent-history stats --models # Daily trends agent-history stats --by-day # Per-workspace breakdown agent-history stats --by-workspace
List Workspaces
# All local workspaces agent-history lsw # Filter by pattern agent-history lsw myproject
Data Location
Claude Code stores conversations in ~/.claude/projects/ as JSONL files:
- •Main sessions:
{uuid}.jsonl - •Agent tasks:
agent-{id}.jsonl
Workspace directories are encoded paths (e.g., -home-user-myproject = /home/user/myproject).
Search Strategy (No Built-in Search Yet)
Since the tool doesn't have a search command, use this workflow:
Method 1: Export + Grep (Recommended)
# Export recent sessions from ALL workspaces to temp directory agent-history export --aw --since 2025-11-24 -o /tmp/history-search --minimal # Search the exported markdown files grep -r -i "search term" /tmp/history-search/
Method 2: Direct JSONL Search
# Find the workspace directory ls ~/.claude/projects/ | grep myproject # Search within JSONL files (content is in message.content) grep -i "search term" ~/.claude/projects/-home-user-myproject/*.jsonl
Method 3: Multi-term Semantic Search
For questions like "what did we discuss about database connections":
- •Generate related search terms based on the topic
- •Run multiple grep searches
- •Synthesize the findings
Example for "database connections":
# Export recent history from all workspaces first agent-history export --aw --since 2025-11-24 -o /tmp/search --minimal # Search for related terms grep -r -i -l "database" /tmp/search/ grep -r -i -l "connection" /tmp/search/ grep -r -i -l "postgres\|mysql\|sqlite\|mongo" /tmp/search/ grep -r -i -l "sql" /tmp/search/ grep -r -i -l "pool\|timeout" /tmp/search/
Then read the matching files to find relevant conversations.
Common Workflows
"What did we discuss about X last week?"
- •
Export recent sessions from all workspaces:
bashagent-history export --aw --since 2025-11-24 -o /tmp/history --minimal
- •
Search for the topic and variations:
bashgrep -r -i -l "TOPIC" /tmp/history/ grep -r -i -l "RELATED_TERM1" /tmp/history/ grep -r -i -l "RELATED_TERM2" /tmp/history/
- •
Read matching files to summarize findings
"How did we fix that error?"
- •
Search for error-related terms:
bashagent-history export --aw --since 2025-11-01 -o /tmp/history --minimal grep -r -i "error\|exception\|failed" /tmp/history/ | head -50
- •
Look for solution patterns:
bashgrep -r -i -A5 "fixed\|resolved\|solution" /tmp/history/
"How much time have I spent on this project?"
agent-history stats --time
"Which tools do I use most?"
agent-history stats --tools
"Show me my activity this month"
agent-history stats --by-day --since 2025-11-01
"Export everything for backup"
agent-history export --ah --aw -o ~/claude-backup/
Tips
- •Use
--minimalfor reading: Omits UUIDs and metadata, much cleaner - •Use
--sinceto narrow scope: Faster searches on recent history - •Check multiple workspaces: Use
lswto see all available workspaces - •Agent files exist: Tasks spawn
agent-*.jsonlfiles with sub-conversations - •Incremental export: Re-running export skips unchanged files
Output Formats
Exported markdown includes:
- •Message timestamps
- •User/Assistant labels
- •Tool use details (name, input, output)
- •Token usage (in non-minimal mode)
- •Navigation links between messages (in non-minimal mode)
Limitations
- •No built-in semantic search (use grep + Claude reasoning)
- •No full-text index (searches scan files each time)
- •Remote sources require SSH access configured