Session search
Session search lets you search past conversations — across all profiles, all time. It’s a full-text search engine over every conversation you’ve ever had with the agent.What it is
Every conversation is stored as a JSON file in your data directory. Session search builds a full-text index (FTS5 — the same engine SQLite uses) over all those files. When you search, it queries the index and returns matching excerpts ranked by relevance. This is different from memory:- Memory is curated facts the agent decided to remember — distilled, compact, limited.
- Session search is the raw transcript of every conversation — full text, searchable, unfiltered.
When to use it
- “What did we discuss about the database migration three weeks ago?”
- “Find the conversation where we debugged the WebSocket reconnect issue.”
- “Show me every time I mentioned the staging server.”
- “What was the solution to the white screen bug?”
How to search
From the sidebar
Type in the search bar at the top of the sidebar. The search:- First matches conversation titles — if any title contains your query, it shows at the top.
- Then searches conversation contents — full-text search across all messages in all sessions.
- Results are ranked by relevance.
From chat
You can ask the agent to search past sessions:session_search tool to find matching conversations and incorporates the findings into its response.
Advanced search
Session search supports FTS5 query syntax:ANDis the default — multi-word queries require all terms.OR— broader recall (alpha OR beta OR gamma)."exact phrase"— exact match.NOT— exclude terms (python NOT java).- Prefix wildcards —
deploy*matches “deploy”, “deployment”, “deploying”.
What session search returns
Each search result shows:- Session title — the conversation title.
- Date — when the conversation happened.
- Snippet — the matching text, highlighted.
- Profile — which profile the conversation belongs to.
- Match position — where in the conversation the match appears.
Browsing sessions
If you don’t search, you can browse:- Recent sessions — the sidebar shows recent conversations chronologically.
- By profile — switch profiles to see that profile’s conversations.
- By date — conversations are grouped by Today, Yesterday, This Week, Earlier.
Session search vs. memory
| Feature | Session search | Memory |
|---|---|---|
| What it stores | Full conversation transcripts | Distilled facts |
| How it’s created | Automatically — every conversation is indexed | Agent-curated — the agent decides what to remember |
| How to search | FTS5 full-text query | Browse the memory page or ask the agent |
| Size | Grows with every conversation | Bounded (~2,200 chars for agent notes, ~1,375 for user profile) |
| In system prompt | No — searched on demand | Yes — injected into every turn |
| Best for | ”What did we say about X?" | "What do you know about me?” |