> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.usealmanac.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

> ## Agent Instructions
> This handbook preview targets personal CLI 0.11.1. Check installed command help and the matching backend schema before using examples with another release. Examples with named people and placeholder IDs are fictional.

# Conversations

> Find original session messages, read their context, and distinguish saved history from a run.

A session is a continuing conversation with original messages. Search it when a person says “I told you earlier” or when a decision's exact wording matters; a saved knowledge summary may omit that wording. A search result gives the best matching hit per session, so it is a lead into the transcript rather than a complete set of matching messages.

```sh theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"vesper"}}
almanac sessions search "Meridian Labs proposal" --role user
almanac sessions around SESSION_ID MESSAGE_ID --window 5
almanac sessions messages SESSION_ID --limit 100
```

The search hit supplies the session ID, matching message ID, ordinal, snippet, and time. `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](/work/tasks-and-projects). Background [review](/work/review) compares saved session versions; it is a separate workflow from an ordinary search.