conv-lookup

Conversation Lookup

Use this skill whenever the user references a Overdeck conversation — by overdeck.localhost/conv/<id> URL, numeric id, conversation name, or a fuzzy reference like "that GPT conversation". Handles single-conversation review, recent-conversation listing, search, and side-by-side comparison.

When to use

• User asks about a specific conversation ID (e.g., "check conv/108", "what was happening in conversation 42?")
• User pastes a https://overdeck.localhost/conv/<id> URL and asks you to review, read, or look at it
• User wants to compare two conversations (e.g., voice/style diff across models)
• User wants to resume or summarize a past conversation
• User asks for recent conversation history
• Need to find the JSONL session file for a conversation to analyze its content

Do not try WebFetch on overdeck.localhost/conv/<id> — the dashboard is an SPA and WebFetch will return empty page chrome. Always go through the script / pan conv CLI.

"Which conversation am I in?"

If you are an agent inside a conversation and need to know your own conversation (e.g. to hand it off), do not run pan conv scan / list / show and guess. Run:

pan conv current   # alias: pan conv whoami

This resolves the current conversation deterministically from the session you are running in (PAN-1520) — no guessing. To hand off or fork your own conversation, just omit <conv>: pan handoff / pan fork self-detect the same way.

How it works

Conversation and session state lives in the Overdeck SQLite database, but this skill never reads that DB directly — the DB location (~/.overdeck/overdeck.db) and its schema (UUID conversation ids, the per-harness session id in conversation_files.locator, etc.) are not a stable contract and have already shifted twice (PAN-2019 rebrand; claude_session_id column → locator). Instead, everything routes through the canonical pan conv CLI read door, which is schema-stable:

pan conv jsonl <id>        # alias: pan conv transcript <id>
pan conv jsonl --json <id>
pan conv show --json <id>   # conversation metadata (PAN-2018: conversation-first)
pan conv list --format json # discovered sessions

pan conv jsonl is the canonical resolver. It reads the conversation's recorded session id (the locator in conversation_files) + cwd, resolves through the shared Overdeck transcript-path helper, preserves the one-level ~/.claude/projects/*/<session-id>.jsonl fallback, and reports one of:

• ok — path exists on disk
• expired — Claude session id is known, but the JSONL is not present on disk
• unknown — no session locator is recorded for this conversation

conv-find.py --jsonl <id> delegates to pan conv jsonl --json <id>; do not reimplement path encoding, derivation, or glob fallback in the skill script.

The session_file column is deprecated (PAN-451) and NULL for all conversations created since 2026-05. Never conclude "no session file recorded" from a NULL session_file — resolve through pan conv jsonl instead.

Plain pan conv jsonl <id> prints the absolute path to stdout and exits 0 only when status is ok; it exits 1 for expired and unknown. pan conv jsonl --json <id> always prints a JSON object containing status, path, conversationId, claudeSessionId, and cwd; read the status field rather than the process exit code in JSON mode.

Running commands

The script is at the root of this skill directory. Always run it from any working directory.

Find a specific conversation

python3 scripts/conv-find.py <id>

Example output:

Conversation #108
  Name:          20260412-4175
  Status:        ended
  Model:         claude-opus-4-6
  Effort:        medium
  CWD:           ~/Projects
  Issue:         N/A
  Title:         Lexerra game rules query out of scope
  Cost:          $22.90
  Created:       2026-04-12T01:44:30.908Z
  Ended:         2026-04-12T17:00:06.619Z
  Session file:  ~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/<session-id>.jsonl

  Session messages: 130
  By role:        assistant=62, user=68
  Tool uses:      41
  First prompt:   I don't have any information about a game called "Lexerra"...
  Last prompt:    That means the new code is running but still producing nonsense words...
  Last assistant: I traced the remaining nonsense generation to...

The Name/Status/Model/Title/Cost fields come from pan conv show --json. On main branches predating PAN-2018, show returns session-only data and these fields show N/A (the script falls back to pan conv jsonl for id / cwd / transcript); they populate automatically once PAN-2018 lands.

Get only the JSONL path

Prefer the canonical resolver directly:

pan conv jsonl 108
pan conv transcript 108   # alias

The skill helper delegates to the same command:

python3 scripts/conv-find.py --jsonl 108

Print a normalized summary of recent notable messages

python3 scripts/conv-find.py --summary 108

This includes recent messages with:

• line number in the JSONL
• role
• tool names used in that message
• normalized text snippet

Output machine-readable JSON

python3 scripts/conv-find.py --json 108
python3 scripts/conv-find.py --recent 20 --json
python3 scripts/conv-find.py --search gpt-5.4 --json

For a single conversation, --json includes:

• conversation metadata (resolved through pan conv show --json; falls back to the pan conv jsonl resolver on older main)
• a session_summary object with normalized session info parsed from the transcript

List recent sessions

python3 scripts/conv-find.py --recent 20   # default 20

Search by model / workspace / tools / files

Search is a client-side substring filter over pan conv list --format json (there is no CLI search door yet). It matches across primary model, workspace path, issue id, summary, models used, tools used, and files touched:

python3 scripts/conv-find.py --search lexerra
python3 scripts/conv-find.py --search gpt-5.4

Session parsing behavior

The script now tolerates the JSONL message shape variations seen in real Claude Code sessions.

Supported shapes

message.content may be:

• a plain string
• a list of strings
• a list of typed blocks

Typed blocks may include:

• text
• thinking
• tool_use
• tool_result

The parser normalizes these into:

• text fragments
• tool names
• role/timestamp/line metadata

Parsing session content manually

If you still need custom parsing, do not assume message.content is always a list of dict blocks.

import json, pathlib

path = pathlib.Path(session_file)
for line in path.read_text().splitlines():
    if not line.strip():
        continue
    try:
        obj = json.loads(line)
    except json.JSONDecodeError:
        continue
    msg = obj.get("message")
    if not isinstance(msg, dict):
        continue
    content = msg.get("content")
    # content may be a string, list[str], or list[dict]

Do not query the DB directly

There is no stable contract for the on-disk DB path or the conversations schema, and both have already changed repeatedly (rebrand: ~/.panopticon → ~/.overdeck; schema: integer → UUID ids, claude_session_id moved into conversation_files, then renamed to locator with a harness column alongside it). Direct SQL against the DB is what broke this skill in the first place (PAN-2019).

Use the CLI doors instead:

pan conv jsonl --json <id>      # transcript path + claudeSessionId + cwd
pan conv show --json <id>       # conversation metadata (PAN-2018)
pan conv list --format json     # discovered sessions
pan conv current --json         # the conversation you are running in

If you genuinely need a raw DB inspection for debugging (not for resolving a conversation), prefer the dashboard's read API (GET /api/conversations/<id>) or the pan conv doors over hand-written SQL — the DB is a disposable cache rebuilt from durable sources.

Comparing two conversations

When the user wants a voice/approach/regression diff between two conversations:

1. Resolve both via python3 scripts/conv-find.py --json <id> to get resolved_session_file, session_file_status, and model.
2. Extract readable text from each resolved session file (use --summary, or jq for full text).
3. Present side-by-side labelled by model, so style differences are obvious.

Typical use cases: "how did GPT-5.4 handle this vs Sonnet?", "compare conv 365 and 366", "why does the GPT version feel clunkier?".

See Also

• unarchive-conversation — restore an archived Overdeck conversation to active state (write operation; use this if the conversation you're reviewing is archived and you want it live in Mission Control)
• pan show <id> — inspect agent state for issue work (different scope — agents working on issues, not user conversations)