around restores nearby messages for interpretation. sessions messages reads saved messages in position order; continue with --after using the last returned ordinal, which can have gaps. Its default --history current reads the present conversation. --history earlier selects inactive imported history, and all includes both; reading earlier history does not place it back in current model context. There is no date-search flag: use search sort/offset and returned timestamps, or page messages in a selected session.
almanac sessions read SESSION_ID gives session metadata and current replay context without starting an agent run. sessions create also only saves a session. Metadata changes use sessions set SESSION_ID --expect 3 --input @session-change.json after a read, because the session revision may change. When the current managed runtime exposes ALMANAC_SESSION_ID, that is the current conversation’s ID; otherwise use a returned ID rather than guessing. For an actionable outcome that should remain visible across sessions, track the conversation as a task. Background review compares saved session versions; it is a separate workflow from an ordinary search.