/recall — Search Past Claude & Codex Sessions

Search all past Claude Code and Codex sessions using full-text search with BM25 ranking.

Usage

python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py [QUERY] [--list] [--project PATH] [--days N] [--source claude|codex] [--limit N] [--offset N] [--summary-len N] [--no-summary] [--include-subagents] [--reindex] [--json] [--version] [--doctor] [--fix]

<RECALL_SKILL_DIR> varies by installation. Common examples:

• ~/.claude/skills/recall
• ~/.agents/skills/recall

Examples

# Simple keyword search
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py "bufferStore"

# Phrase search (exact match)
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py '"ACP protocol"'

# Boolean query
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py "rust AND async"

# Prefix search
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py "buffer*"

# Filter by project and recency
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py "state machine" --project ~/my-project --days 7

# Search only Claude Code sessions
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py "buffer" --source claude

# Search only Codex sessions
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py "buffer" --source codex

# Force reindex
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --reindex "test"

# List recent sessions
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --list --limit 20

# List mode with optional text filter
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --list "state machine" --limit 20

# Machine-readable JSON output
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --json --source codex --list "auth api"

# Paginate results
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --list --limit 10 --offset 10

# Include subagent sessions (hidden by default)
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --list --include-subagents

# Hide summary lines
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --list --no-summary

# Shorter summaries
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --list --summary-len 80

# Show installed version metadata
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --version

# Run local health checks
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --doctor

# Run doctor with safe auto-fixes
python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/recall.py --doctor --fix

Query Syntax (FTS5)

• Words: bufferStore — matches stemmed variants (e.g., "discussing" matches "discuss")
• Phrases: "ACP protocol" — exact phrase match
• Boolean: rust AND async, tauri OR electron, NOT deprecated
• Prefix: buffer* — matches bufferStore, bufferMap, etc.
• Combined: "state machine" AND test

After Finding a Match

To resume a session, cd into the project directory and use the appropriate command:

# Claude Code sessions [claude]
cd /path/to/project
claude --resume SESSION_ID

# Codex sessions [codex]
cd /path/to/project
codex resume SESSION_ID

Each result includes a File: path. Use it to read the raw transcript (auto-detects format):

python3 <RECALL_SKILL_DIR>/scripts/read_session.py <File-path-from-result>

If results are missing File: paths, run --reindex to backfill.

Notes

• Index is stored at ~/.recall.db (SQLite FTS5, auto-migrated from ~/.claude/recall.db)
• Indexes both ~/.claude/projects/ (Claude Code) and ~/.codex/sessions/ (Codex)
• Each session shows a one-line summary (first meaningful user message)
• Subagent sessions are hidden by default; use --include-subagents to show them
• --project matches an exact project path or child paths only
• Queries with special characters (e.g. dashes) are auto-quoted; on FTS error, falls back to LIKE search
• --fix can be used with --doctor to apply safe automatic fixes (e.g. auto-index when DB is empty)
• First run indexes all sessions (a few seconds); subsequent runs are incremental
• Automatically prunes orphaned DB rows when indexed source files are removed
• Only user and assistant messages are indexed; system noise (<local-command-caveat>, <system-reminder>, etc.) is filtered
• Results show [claude] or [codex] tags to indicate the source
• For simple CJK queries, adds substring fallback matching to improve recall