Thread Search

Search and analyze Claude Code conversation history.

Quick Reference

Tool Selection

Why CC tools: Better permissions, structured output, error handling. Why Bash for jq: No native JSONL parsing in CC.

JSONL Message Structure

{
  "type": "user" | "assistant" | "summary",
  "timestamp": "<ISO-8601>",
  "message": { "content": [{ "type": "text", "text": "..." }] },
  "uuid": "<uuid>",
  "sessionId": "<uuid>"
}

Search Approach

Step 1: Use CC Grep tool to find matching threads

Grep pattern="X" path="~/.claude/projects/" output_mode="files_with_matches"

Step 2: Use Bash + jq for JSON extraction

jq -c 'select(.type=="user") | select(.message.content[].text | test("pattern";"i"))' file.jsonl

Step 3: Use CC Read tool to examine specific thread content

Query Workflows

"Where did I discuss X?"

1. Grep tool → find matching thread files
2. Decode paths to project names
3. Bash + jq → extract first timestamp + context
4. Report: project, thread ID, date range, snippet

"When did we discuss X?"

1. Grep tool → find matching files
2. Bash + jq → extract timestamps from matches
3. Report: timeline grouped by date/project

"Continue work on X"

1. Grep tool → find threads mentioning X
2. Read tool → examine most relevant thread
3. Analyze: goal, accomplishments, pending items, decisions
4. Generate continuation prompt (see template below)

Continuation Prompt Template

Continuing work from [date] on [project]:

## Original Goal
[from first user message]

## What Was Done
- [accomplishments]
- [files changed]

## Pending
- [incomplete items]

## Key Decisions
- [choices that carry forward]

## Resume Point
[specific next task]

jq Patterns

# Decode project path (inline)
echo "-Users-foo-bar" | sed 's/^-/\//; s/-/\//g'

# Extract timestamps from thread
jq -r '.timestamp // empty' file.jsonl | sort

# User messages only
jq -c 'select(.type=="user")' file.jsonl

# Filter by text content
jq -c 'select(.message.content[].text | test("pattern";"i"))' file.jsonl

# Get first/last timestamp
jq -rs '[.[].timestamp | select(.)] | sort | .[0], .[-1]' file.jsonl

Further Reference

For deeper Claude Code internals (storage, configuration, settings): → Use superpowers-developing-for-claude-code:working-with-claude-code skill