When predicting using R ARIMA object, how to declare the time series' history?

Question

Suppose I fit AR(p) model using R arima function from stats package. I fit it using a sample x_1,...,x_n. In theory, when predicting x_{n+1} using this model, it needs an access x_n,...x_{n-p}.

How does the model know which observation I want to predict? What if I wanted to actually predict x_n based on x_{n-1},...,x_{n-p-1} and how my code would differ in this case? Can I make in-sample forecasts, similar to Python's functionality?

If my questions imply that I think about forecasting in a wrong way, please kindly correct my understanding of the subject.