Bug: session list shows no title for seeded (forked/resumed) sessions until opened

[bululuburuarua666]

Symptom

In the Web sidebar session list, sessions created by fork/continue (i.e. header.isSeeded === true) render as the workspace basename (e.g. deepseektest) instead of their durable title. Opening the session (attaching it) makes the correct title appear; after it goes cold again the row loses the title again.

Environment

DSH 0.1.5-rc.1 (the same code is still on master as of 2026-09-13).

Root cause

packages/api/session-controller/src/list.ts — ApiSessionList.projectionsFor:

const block = session === undefined
  ? header.isSeeded
    ? undefined
    : cache?.cachedSnapshot(header, SessionLogOffset(0))
      ?? cache?.cachedPredecessorTitle(header, SessionLogOffset(0))
  : this.ctx.sessionProjections.cachedSnapshot(session)

For a cold seeded session the lister can only pass SessionLogOffset(0) as the inherited-event-count witness, while the stored projection-cache row was written with the lifecycle's real inheritedEventCount (e.g. 3877). lifecycleIdentityMatches (in packages/session/session-projection-cache) compares that field, so the strict identity match can never succeed from this call site — the isSeeded branch forecloses it. The row therefore reports projections: undefined, and the client falls back to the workspace basename.

Evidence that the data is intact

The projection-cache rows on disk (<DSH_HOME>/storages/session_projcache/sessions/<id>.json) do contain the correct titles for these sessions, e.g.:

{"identity":{"formatVersion":3,"createdAt":1789262305293,"cwd":"...","isSeeded":true,"inheritedEventCount":3877},
 "rows":{"title":{"ver":1,"seq":3878,"val":"DSH最新版本兼容性技术分析 (2)"}}}

So the log, the fold, and the cache are all fine — only the list hint is withheld.

Suggested fix

Serve a title-only hint for seeded cold sessions using the identity fields the lister does know (id + formatVersion + createdAt + cwd + isSeeded), ignoring inheritedEventCount — e.g. a cachedSeededTitleHint(meta) on the projection cache used in place of the undefined branch:

header.isSeeded
  ? cache?.cachedSeededTitleHint(header)
  : cache?.cachedSnapshot(header, SessionLogOffset(0))
    ?? cache?.cachedPredecessorTitle(header, SessionLogOffset(0))

We run this as a local patch and the sidebar then shows seeded titles without opening the sessions. The title row is written by this lifecycle's own live checkpoint, so serving it is a possibly-stale but genuine fact of this log — matching the semantics cachedPredecessorTitle already accepts for unseeded rows.

[PerryLink]

Confirmed on master c291e79 (note: master is 0.1.5-rc.2 now, your repro is rc.1 - the path is identical). The fallback is real: the cold-session list summarizes seeded sessions with no projections (list.ts:274-279 - the isSeeded ternary matches your quote verbatim), so the client falls back to displayTitle = title ?? workspaceTitleOf(cwd basename) ?? id (service.ts:146-153, called from tree.ts:156-158). The root cause matches your analysis: the projection-cache identity compares createdAt/cwd/isSeeded/inheritedEventCount (session-projection-cache/src/index.ts:435-443), and for cold seeded rows the API deliberately skips the cache query (list.ts:275-276). One precision: it does not even attempt SessionLogOffset(0) - the skip is hard-coded, while the session's own cache row does hold isSeeded plus the real inheritedEventCount (identityOf :394-410). So the title data exists, but the list API withholds the projection hint for cold seeded rows. Your cachedSeededTitleHint-style fix direction is consistent with the existing cachedPredecessorTitle semantics; master has not changed since 2026-09-10. The disk-cache-row evidence I could not reproduce locally【未核实】.

[Rice00]

Adding two datapoints to the confirmed analysis (still reproducing on 0.1.5-rc.2 + dsh-plugin-desktop 2.0.10, 2026-09-14).

1. The on-disk cache row is observable — closing the unverified note (【未核实】) in the reply above. For a cold fork whose sidebar row shows basename(cwd), the record under <DSH_HOME>/storages/session_projcache/sessions/<id>.json is lifecycle-complete and does carry the title (redacted shape):

{"identity":{"formatVersion":3,"createdAt":<ts>,"cwd":"...","isSeeded":true,"inheritedEventCount":<inherited count>},
 "rows":{"title":{"ver":1,"seq":<title seq>,"val":"<redacted title>"},
         "sessionListMetadata":{"ver":1,"seq":<metadata seq>,"val":{"blank":false,"lastPromptAt":<ts>}}}}

The title row's ver matches the registered unit (1) and its seq sits within the session's log, so viewCheckpoint() would serve it — the value is withheld only by the isSeeded branch at the call site.

2. A second symptom of the same short-circuit: sessionListMetadata is dropped together with the title, so summarizeCold() falls back to updatedAt = max(header.createdAt, 0). A cold fork row is therefore ordered by its creation time instead of its last prompt, and its relative "last activity" label is wrong until the session is opened. If a seeded hint is added, carrying that key along would fix both.

[bululuburuarua666]

Thanks both — picking up the two threads.

On the 【未核实】 disk-row evidence (for @PerryLink): the cache rows are directly observable on my deployment. Path: <DSH_HOME>/storages/session_projcache/sessions/session-<uuid>.json (one JSON per row, shaped {version:7, record:{identity, rows}}; there is also a monolithic <DSH_HOME>/storages/session_projcache.json with unit.version:3). Across this deployment: 81/81 rows carry rows.title, 80/81 carry rows.sessionListMetadata — including the exact cold forks that render as basename(cwd) in the sidebar. So @Rice00's redacted shape is reproduced here as well; the value really is withheld only by the call-site branch.

Adopted @Rice00's suggestion: the seeded hint now serves both title and sessionListMetadata for cold seeded rows, so updatedAt = max(createdAt, lastPromptAt) drives correct ordering and the relative-age label instead of falling back to creation time. That closes the second symptom in the same patch.

One new datapoint neither reply had yet: sessions written before the lineage fields existed (V0-era forks) have cache rows whose identity contains no formatVersion and no isSeeded at all. A strict-equality hint misses those too. The tolerance that works is: accept absent-or-matching for both fields, reject contradicting (same spirit as cachedPredecessorTitle on absent format generations). Replayed against every actually-affected row in this deployment: 19/20 render titles after the patch (1 is in another workspace and behaves the same; 2 rows are legitimately title-less because they contain zero user messages).

Local patch shape (fork): cachedSeededTitleHint(meta) on the projection cache — id + (formatVersion absent-or-equal) + createdAt + cwd + (isSeeded absent-or-equal), ignoring inheritedEventCount, serving the title and metadata units with the asOfSeq:-1 sentinel; called from the header.isSeeded branch of ApiSessionList.projectionsFor.