---
title: memhtml trace search
description: FTS over session first-prompts and AI titles. Never enters memory retrieval.
---

## 1. Synopsis

FTS over session first-prompts and AI titles. Never enters memory retrieval.

```sh
memhtml trace search <query> [options]
```

## 2. Arguments

| Argument | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `query` | yes | Prose. A double-quoted span demands those words in that order; nothing else is syntax. |

## 3. Flags

| Flag | Type | Default | Values | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `--cwd` | string | *no default* | *no fixed set* | Restrict to sessions from this directory. |
| `--since` | string | *no default* | *no fixed set* | ISO-8601 lower bound on started\_at. |
| `--limit` | integer | `20` | *no fixed set* | Sessions to return. |

Every command also accepts the [global flags](/reference/global-flags/).

## 4. Response

On success the command writes one JSON envelope to stdout, and its `type` is `trace.sessions`.

On failure it writes the failure envelope, whose `code` comes from [error codes](/reference/error-codes/).

[The JSON envelope](/reference/envelope/) gives the fields both shapes carry. [Response types](/reference/response-types/) lists every value `type` takes across the binary.

## 5. Further reading

No guide block names this command. The [guide](/reference/guide/) is the workflow prose the CLI ships beside the command table: which command to reach for, and in what order.

## 6. Provenance

A loader generates this page from `apps/cli/src/commands.ts` while the site builds, so no file in the repository holds it: the `COMMANDS` array there is the one source of argument parsing, of `memhtml manifest`, and of `AGENTS.md`. Change the registry and this page changes with it.