pi-session-search

Pi session search

The one command that finds past-session content, replacing ad-hoc grep/python archaeology.

Steps

1. Confirm the sessions root

echo "$PI_SESSION_FILE"   # current session; its dirname's parent is the root
ls ~/.pi/agent/sessions   # the root (default)
python scripts/pi-session-search.py --root DIR "pattern"   # point at a custom root

Done when: you know the root path — ~/.pi/agent/sessions by default, or the --root DIR you pass for a run that used its own --session-dir.

2. Full-text file-level search

python scripts/pi-session-search.py "pattern"          # relative to this skill's dir

Output: hit list grouped by repo directory, each file with a hit count and a UTC timestamp spanning the session. Filenames sort newest-last (UTC timestamps prefix them).

Done when: you can name every session file containing the pattern, or state confidently that none do (an empty report means no hit).

3. Structured queries (`--json`)

--json requires at least one filter (--role / --tool / --field); add a pattern as the last positional ("" matches all).

python scripts/pi-session-search.py --json --role assistant "pattern"          # a role
python scripts/pi-session-search.py --json --role assistant --tool subagent "" # tool-call events only
python scripts/pi-session-search.py --json --tool subagent --field "model=" "" # args with a model key (any value)
python scripts/pi-session-search.py --json --tool subagent "sensenova-6.8"     # call args containing the text
python scripts/pi-session-search.py --show 5 "pattern"                          # file mode: 5 snippets per hit file

Each event line prints: timestamp, role, event type, the tool name (for tool calls), and a truncated content snippet.

Done when: your question maps to a named filter, and the output answers it — e.g. "the subagent calls in that session carried model 0/4 times".

4. Drill into a hit

Once you know the file, open it where the hit was:

grep -n "pattern" ~/.pi/agent/sessions/--C--Users-Hue-Repos-<repo>--/<session>.jsonl

Done when: you have read the surrounding lines in context.

Reference: environment facts

Session dirs start with -- (they encode the cwd, e.g. --C--Users-Hue-Repos-foo--). ls -d */, for f in $(ls -d */), and du */20*.jsonl misparse them as options — use the script, or find/rg with an explicit ./ or -- separator.
JSONL, one event per line: type is session | message | model_change | thinking_level_change | custom_message | ... A message event's body is message.role + message.content[] (parts of type text / thinking / toolCall). Tool calls live in assistant content[] parts with type: "toolCall"; tool results are their own events (message.role == "toolResult") carrying the returned text — event-level details is not written.
Thinking-level evidence has two landing spots: the requested level in a set-thinking-level toolCall's arguments.level; the applied session level in a thinking_level_change event (plain thinkingLevel field).
Python prints Chinese correctly (PYTHONUTF8 active) — no wrapper boilerplate needed.
Scale: hundreds of JSONL files, ~150 MB total. A full-scan python run is seconds; rg is faster for pure text.
Output is capped; narrow with filters or --show N rather than widening the scan.