session-logs

Search your complete conversation history stored in session JSONL files. Use this when a user references older/parent conversations or asks what was said before.

Trigger

Use this skill when the user asks about prior chats, parent conversations, or historical context that isn't in memory files.

Location

Session logs live under the active state directory:
$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/agents/<agentId>/sessions/ (default: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/).
Use the agent=<id> value from the system prompt Runtime line.

• `sessions.json` - Index mapping session keys to session IDs
• `<session-id>.jsonl` - Full conversation transcript per session
• `<session-id>.jsonl.reset.<timestamp>Z` - Transcript archived by /new or /reset
• `<session-id>.jsonl.deleted.<timestamp>Z` - Transcript archived when a session was deleted

When searching history, include the archived (.reset.*, .deleted.*) variants too — they
still contain real conversation content. The plain-glob examples below only catch the
active *.jsonl files; use the "Include archived transcripts" snippet when you need
full recall.

Structure

Each .jsonl file contains messages with:

• type: "session" (metadata) or "message"
• timestamp: ISO timestamp
• message.role: "user", "assistant", or "toolResult"
• message.content[]: Text, thinking, or tool calls (filter type=="text" for human-readable content)
• message.usage.cost.total: Cost per response

Common Queries

Include archived transcripts (.reset.*, .deleted.*)

# Bash helper that emits every searchable transcript path — active and archived.
# Saves and restores `nullglob` locally so callers' shell options aren't disturbed.
AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
list_session_transcripts() {
  local _nullglob_state
  _nullglob_state=$(shopt -p nullglob 2>/dev/null)
  shopt -s nullglob
  for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl \
           "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.reset.*Z \
           "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.deleted.*Z; do
    [ -f "$f" ] && printf '%s\n' "$f"
  done
  eval "$_nullglob_state"
}

Use list_session_transcripts (or an equivalent find invocation) wherever the
plain *.jsonl glob is shown below if you need to include archived sessions:

find "$SESSION_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -type f \
  \( -name '*.jsonl' -o -name '*.jsonl.reset.*Z' -o -name '*.jsonl.deleted.*Z' \) -print

List all sessions by date and size

AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl; do
  date=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | cut -dT -f1)
  size=$(ls -lh "$f" | awk '{print $5}')
  echo "$date $size $(basename $f)"
done | sort -r

_Tip:_ swap the for f in ... line for a while-read over
list_session_transcripts (see snippet above) when you also want archived
.reset / .deleted files in the listing. The while-read pattern is safe
for paths with spaces or other IFS characters:

while IFS= read -r f; do
  date=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | cut -dT -f1)
  size=$(ls -lh "$f" | awk '{print $5}')
  echo "$date $size $(basename "$f")"
done < <(list_session_transcripts) | sort -r

Find sessions from a specific day

AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl; do
  head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | grep -q "2026-01-06" && echo "$f"
done

Extract user messages from a session

jq -r 'select(.message.role == "user") | .message.content[]? | select(.type == "text") | .text' <session>.jsonl

Search for keyword in assistant responses

jq -r 'select(.message.role == "assistant") | .message.content[]? | select(.type == "text") | .text' <session>.jsonl | rg -i "keyword"

Get total cost for a session

jq -s '[.[] | .message.usage.cost.total // 0] | add' <session>.jsonl

Daily cost summary

AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
for f in "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl; do
  date=$(head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | cut -dT -f1)
  cost=$(jq -s '[.[] | .message.usage.cost.total // 0] | add' "$f")
  echo "$date $cost"
done | awk '{a[$1]+=$2} END {for(d in a) print d, "$"a[d]}' | sort -r

Count messages and tokens in a session

jq -s '{
  messages: length,
  user: [.[] | select(.message.role == "user")] | length,
  assistant: [.[] | select(.message.role == "assistant")] | length,
  first: .[0].timestamp,
  last: .[-1].timestamp
}' <session>.jsonl

Tool usage breakdown

jq -r '.message.content[]? | select(.type == "toolCall") | .name' <session>.jsonl | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Search across ALL sessions for a phrase

AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"

# Active sessions only:
rg -l "phrase" "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl

# Active + archived (`.reset.*`, `.deleted.*`) — use this when checking for
# content that may have been compacted/reset/deleted:
rg -l "phrase" "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl \
               "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.reset.*Z \
               "$SESSION_DIR"/*.jsonl.deleted.*Z 2>/dev/null

Tips

• Sessions are append-only JSONL (one JSON object per line)
• Large sessions can be several MB - use head/tail for sampling
• The sessions.json index maps chat providers (discord, whatsapp, etc.) to session IDs
• Reset/compacted sessions have .jsonl.reset.<timestamp>Z suffix — still contain full transcripts and are searchable.
• Deleted sessions have .jsonl.deleted.<timestamp>Z suffix — also still searchable.
• A plain *.jsonl glob will _miss_ both archived forms. Include them explicitly (see the "Include archived transcripts" snippet above) when you need full history.

Fast text-only hint (low noise)

AGENT_ID="<agentId>"
SESSION_DIR="${OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR:-$HOME/.openclaw}/agents/$AGENT_ID/sessions"
jq -r 'select(.type=="message") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="text") | .text' "$SESSION_DIR"/<id>.jsonl | rg 'keyword'