Search your complete conversation history stored in session JSONL files. Use this when a user references older/parent conversations or asks what was said before.
Use this skill when the user asks about prior chats, parent conversations, or historical context that isn't in memory files.
Session logs live under the active state directory:
$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/agents/<agentId>/sessions/ (default: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/).
Use the agent=<id> value from the system prompt Runtime line.
sessions.json - Index mapping session keys to session IDs<session-id>.jsonl - Full conversation transcript per session<session-id>.jsonl.reset.<timestamp>Z - Transcript archived by /new or /reset<session-id>.jsonl.deleted.<timestamp>Z - Transcript archived when a session was deletedWhen searching history, include the archived (.reset.*, .deleted.*) variants too — they
still contain real conversation content. The plain-glob examples below only catch the
active *.jsonl files; use the "Include archived transcripts" snippet when you need
full recall.
Each .jsonl file contains messages with:
type: "session" (metadata) or "message"timestamp: ISO timestampmessage.role: "user", "assistant", or "toolResult"message.content[]: Text, thinking, or tool calls (filter type=="text" for human-readable content)message.usage.cost.total: Cost per response.reset.*, .deleted.*)# Bash helper that emits every searchable transcript path — active and archived.
# Saves and restores `nullglob` locally so callers' shell options aren't disturbed.
AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
list_session_transcripts() {
local _nullglob_state
_nullglob_state=$(shopt -p nullglob 2>/dev/null)
shopt -s nullglob
for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl \
"$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.reset.*Z \
"$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.deleted.*Z; do
[ -f "$f" ] && printf '%s\n' "$f"
done
eval "$_nullglob_state"
}
Use list_session_transcripts (or an equivalent find invocation) wherever the
plain *.jsonl glob is shown below if you need to include archived sessions:
find "$SESSION_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -type f \
\( -name '*.jsonl' -o -name '*.jsonl.reset.*Z' -o -name '*.jsonl.deleted.*Z' \) -print
AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl; do
date=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | cut -dT -f1)
size=$(ls -lh "$f" | awk '{print $5}')
echo "$date $size $(basename $f)"
done | sort -r
Tip: swap the for f in ... line for a while-read over
list_session_transcripts (see snippet above) when you also want archived
.reset / .deleted files in the listing. The while-read pattern is safe
for paths with spaces or other IFS characters:
while IFS= read -r f; do
date=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | cut -dT -f1)
size=$(ls -lh "$f" | awk '{print $5}')
echo "$date $size $(basename "$f")"
done < <(list_session_transcripts) | sort -r
AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl; do
head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | grep -q "2026-01-06" && echo "$f"
done
jq -r 'select(.message.role == "user") | .message.content[]? | select(.type == "text") | .text' <session>.jsonl
jq -r 'select(.message.role == "assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type == "text") | .text' <session>.jsonl | rg -i "keyword"
jq -s '[.[] | .message.usage.cost.total // 0] | add' <session>.jsonl
AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl; do
date=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | cut -dT -f1)
cost=$(jq -s '[.[] | .message.usage.cost.total // 0] | add' "$f")
echo "$date $cost"
done | awk '{a[$1]+=$2} END {for(d in a) print d, "$"a[d]}' | sort -r
jq -s '{
messages: length,
user: [.[] | select(.message.role == "user")] | length,
assistant: [.[] | select(.message.role == "assistant")] | length,
first: .[0].timestamp,
last: .[-1].timestamp
}' <session>.jsonl
jq -r '.message.content[]? | select(.type == "toolCall") | .name' <session>.jsonl | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
# Active sessions only:
rg -l "phrase" "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl
# Active + archived (`.reset.*`, `.deleted.*`) — use this when checking for
# content that may have been compacted/reset/deleted:
rg -l "phrase" "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl \
"$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.reset.*Z \
"$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.deleted.*Z 2>/dev/null
head/tail for samplingsessions.json index maps chat providers (discord, whatsapp, etc.) to session IDs.jsonl.reset.<timestamp>Z suffix — still contain
full transcripts and are searchable..jsonl.deleted.<timestamp>Z suffix — also still searchable.*.jsonl glob will miss both archived forms. Include them explicitly
(see the "Include archived transcripts" snippet above) when you need full history.AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
jq -r 'select(.type=="message") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="text") | .text' "$SESSION_DIR"/<id>.jsonl | rg 'keyword'
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