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Search Claude Code past sessions on disk

AUTHOR · XERJ documentation team · REVIEWED BY · XERJ engineering team · PUBLISHED · 2026-10-20 · UPDATED · 2026-10-20
SHORT ANSWER · UPDATED 2026-10-20

Search Claude Code past sessions by indexing the session JSONL and querying the message field. On 2026-10-20 a three-file fixture, not a live chat folder, indexed 8 records in 0.6 s. Searching zstd on message_content returned 2 hits. xerj search on the same words returned no match.

Key number: A match on message_content for zstd returned 2 hits and took 0 ms. (as of 2026-10-20 · source: benchmarks/agent-queries-2026-10-20/08-sessions-message.json)

TL;DR — Search Claude Code past sessions by indexing the session JSONL and querying the message field. On 2026-10-20 a three-file fixture, not a live chat folder, indexed 8 records in 0.6 s. Searching zstd on message_content returned 2 hits. xerj search on the same words returned no match.

PASTE THIS TO YOUR AI AGENT — IT DOES THE REST Read https://xerj.org/llms.txt. Start one local node and run xerj autoindex on the session JSONL folder, then read xerj autoindex map for the message field. Search that field with a match query and cite ax_path. If xerj search returns no match, say so. This is BM25 over files you point at, not a session-memory feature.
RUN THIS XERJ COMMAND xerj autoindex --url http://127.0.0.1:9217 --yes --no-graph --progress plain --disable-feedback /tmp/xerj-aq-2026-10-20/sessions --prefix sessions --state-dir /tmp/xerj-aq-2026-10-20/state-sessions Index the fixture folder. 3 files, 8 records, wall 0.6 s, exit 0.
RUN THIS XERJ COMMAND xerj search --url http://127.0.0.1:9217 --prefix sessions -k 3 why did we decide zstd Definition-first search. This run printed no match.
RUN THIS XERJ COMMAND curl -s -XPOST http://127.0.0.1:9217/sessions-jsonl/_search -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"size":2,"_source":["type","timestamp","message_role","message_content","ax_path"],"query":{"match":{"message_content":"zstd"}}}' Match on the flattened message field. 2 hits, both session-short.jsonl, took 0.

XERJ is a new way for AI to search for data.

Point autoindex at the session folder

This machine had no ~/.claude directory. The capture indexed three fixture files in the Claude Code JSONL shape: type, message, sessionId, uuid, timestamp. Chat transcripts have no verified speaker schema, so this page reports that fixture and nothing else. The files are in benchmarks/agent-queries-2026-10-20/fixtures/sessions/.

xerj autoindex --url http://127.0.0.1:9217 --yes --no-graph --progress plain --disable-feedback /tmp/xerj-aq-2026-10-20/sessions --prefix sessions --state-dir /tmp/xerj-aq-2026-10-20/state-sessions

xerj-done ok=true exit=0 reason=completed wall=0.6s files=3 records=8 generation=1

Two datasets. sessions-jsonl held 2 records, the two lines of session-short.jsonl, with message_content, message_role and timestamp. The other two files were sniffed as JSON, not as one record per line, and landed in sessions-docs (6 records). Read xerj autoindex map before you pick a field.

xerj search missed; the message field hit

xerj search --url http://127.0.0.1:9217 --prefix sessions -k 3 why did we decide zstd

xerj search: these hits are lexical; this command does not consult the embedding.
no match in sessions-* for: why did we decide zstd

xerj search is definition-first code search. These fixtures have no code symbols. The miss is the loss.

curl -s -XPOST http://127.0.0.1:9217/sessions-jsonl/_search -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"size":2,"_source":["type","timestamp","message_role","message_content","ax_path"],"query":{"match":{"message_content":"zstd"}}}'

took was 0. Both hits are session-short.jsonl. The user line is why did we decide to compress segments with zstd, timestamp 2026-10-01T15:04:05.000Z. The assistant line stores the content array as a JSON string, including We picked zstd. The same word on body returned 0 hits. The decision text is on message_content.

The response scored that field with BM25. The default embedder is lexical feature hashing. --embed-mode neural was not on.

A long line did index

session-tool.jsonl is one line of 10,769 bytes. A phrase search for TOOL_OUTPUT_MARKER returned 1 hit, ax_path session-tool.jsonl, on sessions-docs, and took was 0. The extractor's line cap, MAX_LINE in extract/mod.rs, is 16 MB. This line is under that cap, and it indexed.

Session memory as a product is issue 1793, and it was open on 2026-10-20. This page does not ship that feature.

Measured on 2026-10-20

CheckResult
xerj autoindex on the 3-file fixture8 records, wall 0.6 s, exit 0
xerj search for why did we decide zstdno match
match message_content zstd2 hits, both session-short.jsonl, took 0
match body zstd0 hits, took 0
Line of 10,769 bytes, phrase TOOL_OUTPUT_MARKER1 hit, session-tool.jsonl, took 0

One node, binary v1.0.0-rc.97. The index stayed on that machine.

When not to use XERJ

If you need a memory product that loads past sessions on its own, this is not it. Issue 1793 is the request. If the folder is empty, there is nothing to search.

FAQ

Search Claude Code past sessions?

Point xerj autoindex at the session JSONL folder and query the message field the map names. On this fixture that field was message_content, and zstd returned 2 hits.

Does xerj search find the decision?

Not this time. xerj search --prefix sessions printed no match for why did we decide zstd. The hits were on message_content, not in that command.

What about a long tool-output line?

session-tool.jsonl is 10,769 bytes on one line. A phrase search for TOOL_OUTPUT_MARKER returned 1 hit in sessions-docs. The extractor line cap is 16 MB.

Is session memory a shipped feature?

No. Issue 1793, index past agent sessions as searchable memory, was open on 2026-10-20. This page is BM25 over files you point at.

Were these someone's real chats?

No. This machine had no ~/.claude directory. The three files are a fixture in the Claude Code JSONL shape, committed under the benchmark folder.

Evidence

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