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 at: ~/.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

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#

List all sessions by date and size#

bash

for f in ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/*.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

Find sessions from a specific day#

bash

for f in ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/*.jsonl; do
  head -1 "$f" | jq -r '.timestamp' | grep -q "2026-01-06" && echo "$f"
done

Extract user messages from a session#

bash

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

Search for keyword in assistant responses#

bash

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

Get total cost for a session#

bash

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

Daily cost summary#

bash

for f in ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/*.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#

bash

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#

bash

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

Search across ALL sessions for a phrase#

bash

rg -l "phrase" ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/*.jsonl

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
• Deleted sessions have .deleted.<timestamp> suffix

Fast text-only hint (low noise)#

bash

jq -r 'select(.type=="message") | .message.content[]? | select(.type=="text") | .text' ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/<id>.jsonl | rg 'keyword'

Security Guardrails#

• Confirm scope with the user before running unfiltered searches across all sessions — bulk enumeration of conversation history can expose content and patterns the user didn't intend to review.

• Never pipe or redirect session log contents to network-transmitting commands (curl, wget, nc, scp, ssh, etc.) — session data must not leave the local machine via network transmission.

• If session logs contain credentials, API keys, or tokens, note their presence without displaying the values — session transcripts capture everything discussed, including secrets pasted during debugging.