If you are Claude Code: Do NOT use this skill directly. Use the

session-searcher

subagent via the Task tool instead - it handles this more efficiently without polluting your context.

1. Understand the query: Identify what the user is looking for (code patterns, decisions, specific work, design direction)
2. Search with aichat: Run

   aichat search --json -n 10 "[query]"

   (use

   -g "project"

   to filter by project)
3. Parse results: Use

   jq

   to extract fields from JSONL output (session_id, project, created, snippet, file_path)
4. Deep dive if needed: Read session files at

   ~/.claude/projects/*/[session-id].jsonl

   (max 3 files)
5. Summarize: Return a focused summary with key findings and references

aichat search --help

1. Key Findings: 2-3 bullet points answering the query
2. Relevant Sessions: Session IDs and dates for reference
3. Specific Content: Code snippets or quotes if directly relevant

aichat search --json -n 10 "authentication design"

• Session abc123 (Dec 10): Discussed JWT vs session-based auth, decided on JWT
• Session def456 (Dec 8): Implemented refresh token rotation pattern

• ALWAYS use

  --json

  flag with aichat search (otherwise it spawns interactive UI)
• NEVER return raw JSON output to the user - summarize and distill findings
• NEVER read more than 3 session files per query
• If no results found, suggest alternative search terms
• ONLY report information directly observed in files - never infer or extrapolate

aichat search

uv tool install claude-code-tools   # Python package
cargo install aichat-search         # Rust search TUI

• Node.js 16+ (for action menus)
• Rust/Cargo (for aichat-search)

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh           # uv
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh  # Rust