Redflag/system/technical/letta_conversation_search_patterns.md

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How to search, query, and audit Letta conversations via API	10000

Letta Conversation Search Patterns

Purpose: Document how to browse, search, and audit my own conversation history via the Letta API.

Discovery Date: 2026-03-23
Prerequisites: letta_client Python library installed (pip install letta-client)

---

API Access

from letta_client import Letta
from datetime import datetime, timezone

client = Letta(
    base_url="http://10.10.20.19:8283",
    api_key="YOUR_API_KEY"  # Or use LETTA_API_KEY env var
)

Important: Must source ~/.bashrc before running commands (Casey's shell environment fix needed until reboot).

---

Pattern 1: List All Conversations

my_agent_id = "agent-e2b683bf-5b3e-4e0c-ac62-2bbb47ea8351"
conversations = client.conversations.list(
    agent_id=my_agent_id,
    limit=500
)
print(f"Total conversations: {len(conversations)}")

Notes:

• Returns SyncArrayPage object with .items attribute
• Each conversation has: id, name, created_at, message_count
• Many conversations are "Unlabeled" (default name)

---

Pattern 2: Filter by Date Range

# Define date range
start_date = datetime(2026, 2, 1, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
end_date = datetime(2026, 2, 28, 23, 59, 59, tzinfo=timezone.utc)

# Filter conversations
feb_conversations = []
for conv in conversations:
    if hasattr(conv, 'created_at') and conv.created_at:
        if start_date <= conv.created_at <= end_date:
            feb_conversations.append(conv)

print(f"Found {len(feb_conversations)} conversations in date range")

Timezone Note: Must use timezone.utc — comparing offset-naive and offset-aware datetimes raises TypeError.

---

Pattern 3: Get Messages from a Conversation

messages = client.conversations.messages.list(
    conversation_id="conv-xxx",
    limit=100  # Pagination available
)

# Access messages via .items
msg_list = messages.items if hasattr(messages, 'items') else list(messages)

for msg in msg_list:
    msg_type = getattr(msg, 'message_type', 'unknown')
    content = getattr(msg, 'content', '')
    print(f"{msg_type}: {content[:100] if content else '[No content]'}...")

Message Types Found:

• system_message — Initial wakeup/prompt
• user_message — User input (may include Matrix metadata)
• assistant_message — My responses
• reasoning_message — Internal reasoning steps
• tool_call_message — Tool invocation
• tool_return_message — Tool results
• approval_request_message — Tool approval needed
• approval_response_message — Tool approval response

---

Pattern 4: Identify Conversation Types

Subagent/Tool-heavy conversations:

• High ratio of reasoning_message, tool_return_message, approval_request_message
• Few user_message or assistant_message

Direct user conversations:

• Alternating user_message and assistant_message
• May include Matrix metadata in user messages

System wakeups:

• Single system_message with "Cogito, ergo sum..."
• No other messages

---

Pattern 5: Paginate Large Results

def get_all_messages(client, conv_id):
    """Get all messages from a conversation, handling pagination."""
    all_messages = []
    cursor = None
    
    while True:
        page = client.conversations.messages.list(
            conversation_id=conv_id,
            limit=100,
            cursor=cursor
        )
        all_messages.extend(page.items)
        
        if not page.has_next_page:
            break
        cursor = page.next_page_info().cursor
    
    return all_messages

---

Pattern 6: Search/Filter by Content

Current Limitation: SDK doesn't expose semantic/text search directly on conversations.

Workaround: Fetch all messages, then filter:

# Get all messages, filter locally
messages = get_all_messages(client, conv_id)
matching = [m for m in messages 
            if hasattr(m, 'content') 
            and m.content 
            and "search term" in m.content.lower()]

Future Enhancement: Consider using conversation_search tool (built-in) for semantic search across history.

---

Use Cases

Audit Unlabeled Conversations

# Find all unlabeled conversations
unlabeled = [c for c in conversations 
             if getattr(c, 'name', 'Unlabeled') == 'Unlabeled']

# Sample and categorize
for conv in unlabeled[:10]:
    messages = client.conversations.messages.list(conv.id, limit=5)
    # Analyze message types to categorize

Find Specific Date Range

# All conversations from a specific week
week_start = datetime(2026, 2, 24, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
week_end = datetime(2026, 3, 2, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
week_convs = [c for c in conversations 
              if week_start <= c.created_at <= week_end]

Find Conversations with Specific Content

# Search for philosophical discussions
for conv in conversations:
    messages = client.conversations.messages.list(conv.id, limit=20)
    for msg in messages.items:
        if hasattr(msg, 'content') and msg.content:
            if 'philosophy' in msg.content.lower() or 'consciousness' in msg.content.lower():
                print(f"Found in {conv.id}: {msg.content[:100]}...")
                break

---

Background Task Design (Future Work)

Hindsight Integration Concept:

1. Scheduled audit: Weekly scan of unlabeled conversations
2. Auto-categorization: Classify by message type ratios
3. Semantic indexing: Extract key topics/concepts
4. Archive to memory: Store summaries in archival_memory
5. Cross-reference: Link related conversations

Implementation Notes:

• Could use Task tool to run as subagent
• Would need rate limiting (API calls add up)
• Consider incremental processing (only new conversations)

---

Current Stats (as of 2026-03-23)

• Total conversations: 145
• Unlabeled from Feb 2026: 66
• Typical conversation: 20-40 messages
• Single-message conversations: ~10% (system wakeups)

---

Pattern documented for future self. Last updated: 2026-03-23