cognee-search

Cognee Memory Search

Search both session memory and the permanent knowledge graph, optionally filtered by data category.

Automatic session search

Session memory is searched automatically on every user prompt via the UserPromptSubmit hook. You do not need to run this skill to access current-session context.

Data categories

Knowledge is organized into three categories via node_set:

Category	Node set	Contains
user	user_context	User preferences, corrections, personal facts
project	project_docs	Repository docs, code context, architecture decisions
agent	agent_actions	Tool call logs, reasoning traces, generated artifacts

Instructions

Search goes through the running Cognee server (POST /api/v1/recall) — the source of truth. Use the wrapper below: it queries the server first, searches all your authorized datasets (so a hit isn't missed because it lives in another dataset), and falls back to cognee-cli only if the server is unreachable.

One broad search is usually enough — the UserPromptSubmit hook already injects session/trace/graph context every turn, so avoid running many targeted searches (each is an extra permission prompt for the user).

Search (server-first)

# session cache + permanent graph (default)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cognee-search.sh "$ARGUMENTS"

# permanent graph only
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cognee-search.sh "$ARGUMENTS" 10 --graph

# current session only
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/cognee-search.sh "$ARGUMENTS" 10 --session

Filter by category (optional)

Categories (user_context / project_docs / agent_actions) filter by node set. cognee-cli recall does not expose this — pass node_name to the server directly:

curl -s -X POST "${COGNEE_BASE_URL:-http://localhost:8011}/api/v1/recall" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: ${COGNEE_API_KEY:-}" \
  -d '{"query": "...", "top_k": 5, "only_context": true, "scope": ["graph"], "node_name": ["project_docs"]}'

Ground-truth a suspicious result (debugging)

The server is authoritative. If a search returns empty but you expect content, confirm directly — do not conclude "not found" from empty CLI output:

curl -s -X POST "${COGNEE_BASE_URL:-http://localhost:8011}/api/v1/recall" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: ${COGNEE_API_KEY:-}" \
  -d '{"query": "...", "top_k": 5, "only_context": true, "scope": ["graph"]}'

(An authed/cloud server needs COGNEE_API_KEY; a local single-user server ignores an empty key. If the response is an {"error": ...} object rather than a list, the server was reachable but rejected/failed the request — that's an error, not "no results".)

Fallback only — server unreachable

cognee-cli is a thin client over the same server and can print empty stdout even when content exists. Use it only when the server is down, and treat empty output as inconclusive, never as "no results":

cognee-cli recall "$ARGUMENTS" -k 5 -f json

Understanding results

Results include a _source field:

• "session" — from the session cache (current conversation)
• "graph" — from the permanent knowledge graph

Session entries tagged with [category:agent] are automatic tool call logs.

Decision table

Signal	Action
Need current session context	Already automatic, no action needed
User explicitly says "search cognee"	cognee-search.sh "<query>" (server-first)
"what does the codebase do" / "what did we do last time"	cognee-search.sh "<query>" 10 --graph
Need a specific category	use the node_name curl form above (["user_context"|"project_docs"|"agent_actions"])
Auto context insufficient	cognee-search.sh "<query>" 10 --session
Result empty but you expect content	Ground-truth via the curl above before concluding "not found"