How to search earlier sessions

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# How to search earlier sessions

This guide shows how to find something said in an earlier conversation of a project: by hand with `/memory`, or by letting the model search with its `search_memory` tool. It assumes sessions are kept (see [Keep sessions and resume them](keep-sessions.md)).

## Search by hand

1. Turn the command on in the agent's YAML:

   ```yaml
   sessions:
     enabled: true
     searchMemory: true
   ```

2. Start mm — the terminal, the window (`mm -tui`) or an editor — and type the words you remember:

   ```text
   /memory port api
   ```

   ```text
   🔎 2 hit(s) for "port api" in /work/project/.mm/sessions
   20261010-090000-aaaaaaaa · 2026-10-10 09:30 · turn 1 · question
      Which port should the API server listen on?
      → Let's use port 8417 for the API server: 8080 is already taken by the admin UI.
   …
   ```

3. To continue that conversation, `/resume 20261010-090000-aaaaaaaa` (terminal and window).

The model is not called and the conversation in progress is not changed. A hit holds at least one of the words; the more of them it holds, the higher it comes. A question comes with the answer its turn ended on (`→`).

## Let the model search

1. Declare the tool:

   ```yaml
   sessions:
     enabled: true
     autoSearchMemory: true
   ```

2. Ask as you would a colleague who was there: "What port did we decide for the API server last time?", "Write config.go with the port we agreed on before." The model calls `search_memory`, reads the hits, and answers from them.

The two keys are independent: `searchMemory` alone gives you the command and the model no tool; `autoSearchMemory` alone the reverse.

## Variants

- **Search in the language the sessions were held in.** The search matches words, not meanings: a French question searched in French finds nothing in a session written in English. Use the words that were actually written; when the tool finds nothing, its output tells the model to try synonyms or English. A different word for the same thing — "database" for a session that said "storage" and "SQLite" — is still not found.
- **Sessions in a shared directory.** With an absolute `sessions.dir`, the search covers every project that writes there.
- **Sessions are off.** Either key then prints a start-up warning and does nothing.

## See also

- `demos/memory-search/` — a measured demo: an assistant that remembers a project's decisions
- [Configuration reference](../reference/configuration.md) — `sessions.searchMemory`, `sessions.autoSearchMemory`
- [Slash commands reference](../reference/slash-commands.md) — `/memory`
- [Tools reference](../reference/tools.md#search_memory) — `search_memory`
- [Why sessions work this way](../explanation/persistent-sessions.md)