charmbracelet/crush · error

Use more characters or the full hash

Error message

${sessionList}
Use more characters or the full hash

What it means

resolveSessionID builds this multi-line message when a session ID prefix is ambiguous — the given string is not a full UUID and matches the hash prefix of multiple sessions. Modeled after Git's short-hash behavior, it lists each matching session (12-char hash prefix, title, creation date) and tells the caller to supply more characters or the full hash.

Solutions

1. Repeat the command with more characters of the hash, or use the full hash/UUID shown in the match list.
2. Pick the intended session from the printed matches (each shows a 12-char prefix, title, and creation date).
3. Use `crush sessions` to list all sessions with their full identifiers and copy the exact one.

Example fix

// before
crush session delete a1b2
// error: session ID 'a1b2' is ambiguous...
// after
crush session delete a1b2c3d4e5f6

// Validate length before invoking session commands
if len(sessionID) < 12 && !isUUID(sessionID) {
    return fmt.Errorf("provide at least 12 hash chars or the full UUID, got %q", sessionID)
}

if _, err := resolveSessionID(ctx, svc, id); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "is ambiguous") {
    // list the matches from err.Error() and re-prompt for a longer prefix
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a short hash prefix to crush session show/delete/rename or the run command's --session flag when two or more sessions share that prefix; e.g. two sessions whose HashIDs both start with 'a1b2'.

Common situations: Users copying only the first few characters of a session hash from a list; long-lived installs with many sessions increasing collision odds of short prefixes; scripts that truncate session IDs.

Related errors

• cannot continue a child session
• cannot continue a child session
• cannot continue an agent tool session
• failed to initialize config
• failed to resolve session

AI-assisted analysis of charmbracelet/crush@7944b8e522 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/19901745ce2006b8. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/cmd/session.go:257

	}

	if len(matches) == 1 {
		return matches[0], nil
	}

	// Ambiguous - show matches like Git does
	var sb strings.Builder
	fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "session ID '%s' is ambiguous. Matches:\n\n", id)
	for _, m := range matches {
		hash := session.HashID(m.ID)
		created := time.Unix(m.CreatedAt, 0).Format("2006-01-02")
		// Keep title on one line by replacing newlines with spaces, and truncate.
		title := strings.ReplaceAll(m.Title, "\n", " ")
		title = ansi.Truncate(title, 50, "…")
		fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "  %s... %q (created %s)\n", hash[:12], title, created)
	}
	sb.WriteString("\nUse more characters or the full hash")
	return session.Session{}, errors.New(sb.String())
}

func runSessionShow(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
	event.SetNonInteractive(true)

	ctx, svc, cleanup, err := sessionSetup(cmd)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer cleanup()

	event.SessionShown(sessionShowJSON)

	sess, err := resolveSessionID(ctx, svc.sessions, args[0])
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 7944b8e522)