Browser History Search

Search the user's browser history to find visited pages, analyze browsing patterns, and retrieve forgotten information.

When to use

• User asks about pages they visited ("what github repos did I look at last week?")

• User wants to find a forgotten page ("find that article about LLMs I read")

• User asks about browsing habits ("how much time did I spend on Twitter?")

• User wants browsing statistics ("show my most visited sites")

Requirements

• sqlite3 CLI

Setup

First, detect available browsers by running:

./find-browser.sh

• Output: PATH,TYPE,BROWSER,LAST_MODIFIED

• TYPE: firefox or chromium (determines SQL syntax)

• Use the first result (most recently used browser) by default

• If multiple browsers were used recently (within last 24h), ask the user which one to search

Querying the database

Use ?immutable=1 in the SQLite URI to read the database even when the browser is open:

sqlite3 "file:///path/to/history.db?immutable=1" "SELECT ..."

Firefox databases (places.sqlite)

Search by keyword:

SELECT title, url, datetime(last_visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as visit_date FROM moz_places WHERE url LIKE '%keyword%' OR title LIKE '%keyword%' ORDER BY last_visit_date DESC LIMIT 50;

Search by date range:

SELECT url, title, datetime(last_visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as visit_date FROM moz_places WHERE last_visit_date > strftime('%s', '2025-01-01') * 1000000 AND last_visit_date < strftime('%s', '2025-01-31') * 1000000 ORDER BY last_visit_date DESC;

Time spent analysis (uses moz_places_metadata):

SELECT SUM(m.total_view_time) / 1000 / 60 as minutes, COUNT(*) as sessions FROM moz_places_metadata m JOIN moz_places p ON m.place_id = p.id WHERE p.url LIKE '%example.com%' AND m.created_at > strftime('%s', '2025-01-01') * 1000;

Note: created_at is in milliseconds, last_visit_date is in microseconds.

Most visited sites:

SELECT SUBSTR(url, INSTR(url, '://') + 3, INSTR(SUBSTR(url, INSTR(url, '://') + 3), '/') - 1) as domain, SUM(visit_count) as visits FROM moz_places WHERE url LIKE 'http%' GROUP BY domain ORDER BY visits DESC LIMIT 20;

Chromium databases (History)

Important: Chromium timestamps are microseconds since January 1, 1601 (Windows epoch).

Conversion: (timestamp/1000000) - 11644473600 gives Unix epoch.

Search by keyword:

SELECT title, url, datetime((last_visit_time/1000000)-11644473600, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as visit_date FROM urls WHERE url LIKE '%keyword%' OR title LIKE '%keyword%' ORDER BY last_visit_time DESC LIMIT 50;

Search by date range:

SELECT url, title, datetime((last_visit_time/1000000)-11644473600, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as visit_date FROM urls WHERE last_visit_time > (strftime('%s', '2025-01-01') + 11644473600) * 1000000 AND last_visit_time < (strftime('%s', '2025-01-31') + 11644473600) * 1000000 ORDER BY last_visit_time DESC;

Database schema

Firefox (moz_places)

Column Description

url

Full URL

title

Page title

last_visit_date

Microseconds since Unix epoch

visit_count

Number of visits

frecency

Frequency + recency score

Firefox (moz_places_metadata)

Column Description

place_id

Foreign key to moz_places

total_view_time

Milliseconds spent on page

created_at

Milliseconds since Unix epoch

scrolling_time

Time spent scrolling

key_presses

Number of key presses

Chromium (urls)

Column Description

url

Full URL

title

Page title

last_visit_time

Microseconds since 1601-01-01

visit_count

Number of visits

Output guidelines

• Present results in a readable format, grouped by domain when relevant

• For time analysis, show hours/minutes, not raw milliseconds

• When showing history, include the date and a clickable link

• If results are numerous, summarize by domain or time period

• You might include a small ASCII/Unicode chart (daily breakdown, histogram) if relevant

See @README.md for output examples.