[Bug]: Project<->session association lost — chats disappear from PROJECTS sidebar but remain in global sessions

[bgexpert]

Description

In Hermes Desktop, chats that were created inside a project (sidebar: PROJECTS → project expanded shows nested chat sub-items) lose their association with the project over time. The project entry remains in the sidebar and is expandable (caret points up), but the nested chat list becomes empty, while the same chats are still present and openable in the global session list (Search sessions... / all-sessions view).

This has happened repeatedly and is not limited to one project — observed across multiple projects (e.g. a bistånd project showed zero nested chats while those sessions were clearly alive in the general session list). The associations were present originally, then vanished.

Root cause (hypothesis)

The project↔session link is stored in the project/state metadata, but something breaks that link during normal use. Candidate triggers:

• Session switch / project switch races writing the association map.
• A project state write that omits the sessions array (or writes null) when the project metadata is re-saved.
• Orphaned sessions: a session file exists but its back-reference to the project is dropped.

This is a session-state integrity bug (adjacent to the composer draft bug in #63210 and the sweeper:risk-session-state class).

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a project (or use an existing one) and start several chats inside it.
2. Confirm the chats appear as nested sub-items under the project in the PROJECTS sidebar.
3. Use the app over time — switch between projects/sessions, close/reopen, let sessions accumulate.
4. Return to the PROJECTS sidebar and expand the project.
5. Observe: the nested chat list is empty, although the sessions still exist in the global session list.

Expected

A project's nested chat list should always reflect the sessions that belong to it, persistently, until explicitly removed.

Environment

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Hermes: 0.18.2 (win-unpacked)
• Reproduces across multiple projects, intermittently but consistently over time.

Possible fix direction

On project metadata save, never drop the sessions array; reconcile orphaned sessions by re-linking any session whose project back-reference matches but whose forward link is missing. Add an integrity check / repair on sidebar load.

[GottZ]

This was generated by AI during triage.

Summary

One PR addresses #65004. #65262 targets the concrete project-tree failure mode in which the global recent-session cap is applied before cwd/repository membership is computed, causing older project sessions to disappear from the sidebar despite remaining globally available.

Related pull requests

• fix(desktop): preserve complete project membership 🩷 #65262 best fix — (+42/-1) — fixes: fix(desktop): preserve complete project membership 🩷 #65262 removes the pre-membership session cap, loads the complete eligible compact session set in one query, and adds a regression test proving that an older project session remains in the membership input beyond the requested preview limit. Although this does not implement the issue's hypothesized metadata repair, the diff addresses the observed disappearance at the project-tree construction point; the keep_open maintainer-bot review likewise identifies the cap on main as the active cause, and post-rebase verification at 202f370c5 reports the focused regression, full test file, Ruff, and diff checks passing.

Suggested consolidation

Keep #65262 open with a salvage path as the best existing fix for #65004, consistent with the maintainer-bot keep_open verdict: preserve its uncapped compact membership query and focused regression test, while keeping overview hydration bounded separately. There are no competing PRs or duplicates to consolidate or close.

Complex graph

flowchart LR
    classDef open fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1d4ed8,color:#1e3a8a
    classDef merged fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#15803d,color:#14532d
    classDef closed fill:#e5e7eb,stroke:#6b7280,color:#1f2937
    classDef unverified fill:#f3f4f6,stroke:#9ca3af,color:#374151
    classDef best stroke-width:3px,stroke:#b45309
    classDef target stroke-width:3px,stroke:#4338ca
    I65004(["issue #65004 (open)"])
    P65262["PR #65262 (open)"]
    P65262 -->|best fix| I65004
    class I65004 open
    class I65004 target
    class P65262 open
    class P65262 best
    click I65004 "https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/issues/65004"
    click P65262 "https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/pull/65262"

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Graph: solid arrow = fixes / best fix, dashed arrow = partial or unverified (see edge label); boxed group = PRs duplicating each other; amber border = best fix; indigo border = target; gray node = closed (state tag in the node label).

Cross-PR triage: Reviewed 1 pull request and 1 issue in this complex. Each diff was read against this issue; Assessment working set: 3 kB of PR diffs, 4 kB of issue/PR text, <1 kB of discussion (1 comments), 2 verify verdicts. verdicts reflect diff content, not PR titles. Part of an automated triage batch.