# investigating-replay

Gathers PostHog session replay metadata, user profiles, timeline events, and linked error tracking issues into a single report. Useful when debugging issues by session ID.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 389 installs · ★ 76
- Author: PostHog
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/PostHog/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/omnibus/investigating-replay/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-24
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/investigating-replay

## What it does

This skill guides coding assistants through a structured investigation of PostHog recordings. The workflow runs in sequence. Instead of running separate calls by hand, the agent pulls duration, console error counts, and viewing status via `posthog:session-recording-get`, then queries the person profile using `posthog:persons-retrieve`. It follows up with `posthog:execute-sql` to build an action timeline and match `$exception` entries with active tracking issues.

When ingested events lack a `$session_id`, the workflow searches the user's activity within a 100-second buffer around the session timestamps to recover the missing ID. It also checks for existing Replay Vision AI summaries before triggering a new inline scan. To run this workflow, the agent environment must provide the underlying PostHog MCP tools.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add PostHog/skills --skill investigating-replay -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/investigating-replay/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/investigating-replay/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add PostHog/skills --skill investigating-replay -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/investigating-replay/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add PostHog/skills --skill investigating-replay -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/investigating-replay/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install PostHog/skills investigating-replay
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/investigating-replay/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add PostHog/skills --skill investigating-replay -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/PostHog/skills --path skills/omnibus/investigating-replay
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/investigating-replay/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add PostHog/skills --skill investigating-replay -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/PostHog/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/omnibus/investigating-replay/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- reconstruct user actions and page views from a PostHog session ID
- correlate console exceptions and rage clicks with open error issues
- look up user profile attributes and browser metadata for a replay
- recover missing session identifiers using timestamp-padded SQL queries

## Example prompts
- Investigate session recording b28f3a12 and summarize what went wrong
- What happened in session 49a1c8df? Pull the person profile and event timeline
- Check replay 77c01b2e for console errors and retrieve any linked Replay Vision summary

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: 8e317c0c9a500cdd.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 8e317c0c9a500cdd
````text
---
name: investigating-replay
description: >
  Investigates a session recording by gathering metadata, person profile,
  same-session events, and linked error tracking issues in one pass.
  Use when a user provides a recording or session ID and wants to understand
  what happened — who the user was, what they did, what errors occurred,
  and whether there are related error tracking issues. Replaces the manual
  chain of session-recording-get, persons-retrieve, execute-sql, and
  query-error-tracking-issues-list.
---

# Investigating a session recording

When a user asks "what happened in this session?" or provides a recording/session ID
to investigate, gather all relevant context in parallel rather than making them
ask for each piece.

## Available tools

| Tool                                       | Purpose                                                    |
| ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| `posthog:session-recording-get`            | Recording metadata (duration, counts, status)              |
| `posthog:persons-retrieve`                 | Person profile (properties, distinct IDs)                  |
| `posthog:execute-sql`                      | Query events, errors, and page views in session            |
| `posthog:query-error-tracking-issues-list` | Find error tracking issues linked to the session           |
| `posthog:vision-observations-list`         | Check for an existing Replay Vision AI summary             |
| `posthog:vision-observations-get`          | Read one observation in full (`scanner_result`)            |
| `posthog:vision-scanners-inline-scan`      | Generate an AI summary of the session (slow, optional)     |
| `posthog:vision-scanners-list`             | Find saved summarizer scanners (`scanner_type=summarizer`) |
| `posthog:vision-scanners-scan-session`     | Run a saved summarizer scanner on the session (slow)       |

## Workflow

### Step 1 — Get recording metadata and person profile

Start with the recording to get metadata and the person's distinct ID:

```json
posthog:session-recording-get
{
  "id": "<session_id>"
}
```

The recording `id` and the event `$session_id` are the same value. It selects the
recording here and the same-session events in Step 2. The response includes
`distinct_id`, `person`, `start_time`, `end_time`, duration, interaction counts,
console error counts, and viewing status. Use the `distinct_id` to fetch
the full person profile:

```json
posthog:persons-retrieve
{
  "id": "<person_uuid_from_recording>"
}
```

### Step 2 — Query same-session events

Use the recording `id` from Step 1 as the `$session_id` value. Get the timeline
of what the user did during the session:

```sql
posthog:execute-sql
SELECT
    timestamp,
````
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 8e317c0c9a500cdd

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First 2802 of 9482 bytes. © PostHog · MIT · https://github.com/PostHog/skills/tree/HEAD/skills/omnibus/investigating-replay/SKILL.md

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