shell-history

Shell History Search

When the user wants to find something from their shell history, use atuin with timestamps and grep for filtering.

Standard invocation

atuin search --after "<N> days ago" --format "{time} {command}"

Default <N> is 1.

If the user specifies a day count, use that number instead. Examples that set the day count:

• "search last 2 days of shell history"
• "check 3 days of history"
• "last two days"

This returns all shell commands from the past N days, each prefixed with a timestamp.

Filtering by keyword

Then grep for the relevant term (URL, tool name, flag, etc.).

Run each command as a separate Bash call — never chain with pipes in a single call.

Step 1: capture history to a temp file in the job directory if one is available, otherwise write to a uniquely named file under /tmp.

Step 2: grep that file for the keyword.

Expanding the search window

If nothing useful is found with the default 1-day window, expand incrementally: try 2 days, then 3, and so on — up to 7 days before giving up or asking the user for more context.

Report what window you searched each time so the user knows how far back you looked.

When to use this skill

• User says "check my shell history", "look in my history", "find that command I ran"
• User wants a URL they visited via curl/wget or a tool they ran recently
• User asks what flags or arguments they used for a past command