Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · io::Error

No session found with prefix

Error message

No session found with prefix: {}

What it means

Session-id prefix resolution filters all stored sessions by id.starts_with(prefix) and requires exactly one match; zero matches yields a NotFound io::Error. The library throws this so partial-id resume/pick operations fail loudly instead of guessing.

Solutions

  1. List available sessions and copy an exact id or a longer, correct prefix.
  2. Check that you are pointed at the right session storage directory/profile; ids are per-store.
  3. Recreate the session if it was deleted — the old id no longer exists.

Example fix

// before
let id = manager.resolve_session_prefix("ab1")?;
// after
let id = match manager.resolve_session_prefix("ab1") {
    Err(e) if e.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound => {
        eprintln!("no session matches 'ab1'; available: {:?}", manager.list_sessions()?);
        return Err(e);
    }
    other => other?,
};
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn unique_prefix_ok(prefix: &str, sessions: &[SessionInfo]) -> bool {
    let n = sessions.iter().filter(|s| s.id.starts_with(prefix)).count();
    n == 1
}

Try / catch

match resolve_session_prefix(prefix) {
    Err(e) if e.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound => {
        eprintln!("no session matches '{prefix}'; list sessions and retry");
        Err(e)
    }
    other => other,
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the prefix-resolution API (used by resume/continue flows) with a prefix that matches no stored session id — a typo, a stale id from a deleted session, or copying only part of an unrelated id.

Common situations: Typing a shorthand id in the picker or CLI, referencing a session that was deleted, or using an id from another machine/profile directory.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ce665d700c689b35. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/session_manager.rs:2494

            .map(|recovery| recovery.session)
    }

    /// Load a session by partial ID prefix
    pub fn load_session_by_prefix(&self, prefix: &str) -> std::io::Result<SavedSession> {
        self.load_session(&self.resolve_session_id_prefix(prefix)?)
    }

    /// Resolve a unique ID without applying resume-time repair to its record.
    pub(crate) fn resolve_session_id_prefix(&self, prefix: &str) -> std::io::Result<String> {
        let sessions = self.list_sessions()?;

        let matches: Vec<_> = sessions
            .into_iter()
            .filter(|s| s.id.starts_with(prefix))
            .collect();

        match matches.len() {
            0 => Err(std::io::Error::new(
                std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound,
                format!("No session found with prefix: {prefix}"),
            )),
            1 => Ok(matches[0].id.clone()),
            _ => Err(std::io::Error::new(
                std::io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput,
                format!(
                    "Ambiguous prefix '{}' matches {} sessions",
                    prefix,
                    matches.len()
                ),
            )),
        }
    }

    /// List all saved sessions, sorted by most recently updated
    pub fn list_sessions(&self) -> std::io::Result<Vec<SessionMetadata>> {
        let mut sessions = Vec::new();

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