diff --git a/backend/open_webui/tools/builtin.py b/backend/open_webui/tools/builtin.py
index 0ce3c75004..06f34dd890 100644
--- a/backend/open_webui/tools/builtin.py
+++ b/backend/open_webui/tools/builtin.py
@@ -1155,7 +1155,7 @@ async def search_chats(
 
             # Find a matching message snippet
             snippet = ''
-            messages = chat.chat.get('history', {}).get('messages', {})
+            messages = (getattr(chat, 'chat', None) or {}).get('history', {}).get('messages', {})
             lower_query = query.lower()
 
             for msg_id, msg in messages.items():