Contextify Total Recall
Search your conversation history to find past decisions, solutions, and discussions.
Output Format
Begin your response with:
Contextify Total Recall
Then provide the search results with citations.
Trigger phrases
- "use total recall to..."
- "search our conversation history"
- "find where we discussed..."
- "what did we decide about..."
- "look back in past sessions"
- "remember when we talked about..."
Preconditions
This skill requires the Contextify app and CLI. It works with Claude Code and Codex CLI.
- Check CLI availability:
command -v contextify
- If
contextifyis missing:
Error response:
Contextify CLI not found.
DMG users: Open Contextify → Settings → CLI → "Install/Repair CLI"
App Store users: Run
brew install PeterPym/contextify/contextify-queryFor help: https://contextify.sh/help
Canonical loop
- Confirm database availability:
contextify status --json
If database not found, respond:
Contextify database not found.
Please open Contextify once to initialize the database.
Download: https://contextify.sh/download
- Search for an anchor:
contextify search "<query>" --project . --days 30 --limit 10 --json
Anchor selection guidance:
- If asking about earlier context (not "in this chat"), prefer anchors NOT from the active transcript.
- If
CONTEXTIFY_CLAUDE_TRANSCRIPT_IDis set, treat hits from that transcript as lower priority unless user explicitly wants current session. - If transcript ID missing and multiple hits exist, avoid auto-selecting anchors from last 30 minutes.
- Retrieve context around the anchor:
contextify context "<entry-uuid>" --before 10 --after 20 --project . --json
- Format response:
Contextify Total Recall
Found: [brief summary of what was found]
From: [date/time and project context]
[Key excerpts with citations]
Entry ID:
<uuid>(for reference)
Error handling
| Error | Response |
|-------|----------|
| dbNotFound | "Contextify database not found. Open Contextify to initialize. https://contextify.sh/download" |
| dbProjectNotFound | Check details.suggestions, offer alternatives |
| featureUnavailable | Explain limitation clearly, do not imply workarounds |
| entryNotFound | Re-search for a new anchor |
| cliNotFound | "Contextify CLI not found. See https://contextify.sh/help for installation." |
Expanding search
If search returns 0 results:
- Widen
--days(try 90 or 365) - If not clearly about current repo, retry without
--project . - Use
contextify projects --jsonto discover other projects - Ask user to clarify what they're looking for
Delegating to researcher agent
Claude Code only: For complex multi-query searches, delegate to contextify-researcher agent:
Use the contextify-researcher agent to thoroughly search for [topic]
The researcher agent will perform multiple searches and synthesize results.
Codex CLI: Agent delegation is not available. Instead, run multiple searches manually and synthesize results yourself.