chatboxai/chatbox · warning · ChatboxCliUsageError

Conversation not found: ${sessionId}

Error message

Conversation not found: ${sessionId}

What it means

ChatboxCliUsageError thrown by 'chats read' after chatStore.getSession(sessionId) returns a falsy value. Although classified as a usage error (kind:'usage'), it reflects a data-lookup miss: the supplied id does not match any persisted conversation.

Source

Thrown at src/renderer/packages/chatbox-cli/chats.ts:106

              ...compactMessage(message),
            })
          }
        }
      })
      return { scope: 'global', query, hits, limitReached: hits.length >= limit }
    },
  },
  {
    path: ['chats', 'read'],
    description: 'Read compact user/assistant messages from one conversation without approval.',
    usage: 'chatbox chats read <session-id> [--limit 20] [--cursor 0]',
    async execute({ parsed }) {
      const sessionId = parsed.positionals[0]
      if (!sessionId) throw new ChatboxCliUsageError('Missing session id.')
      const limit = integerFlag(parsed, 'limit', { defaultValue: 20, min: 1, max: 50 })
      const cursor = integerFlag(parsed, 'cursor', { defaultValue: 0, min: 0, max: 10_000_000 })
      const session = await chatStore.getSession(sessionId)
      if (!session) throw new ChatboxCliUsageError(`Conversation not found: ${sessionId}`)

      const messages = readableMessages(session)
      const page = messages.slice(cursor, cursor + limit)
      return {
        scope: 'session',
        session: { id: session.id, name: session.name, type: session.type ?? 'chat' },
        messages: page.map(({ message, thread }) => compactMessage(message, thread)),
        nextCursor: cursor + page.length < messages.length ? cursor + page.length : null,
        total: messages.length,
      }
    },
  },
]

View on GitHub (pinned to 81571269ad)

Solutions

1. Re-fetch the id list via ['chats','list'] and use a current id.
2. Verify the id belongs to the active account/device before reading.
3. Handle the { ok:false, kind:'usage' } result by prompting the user to pick a valid conversation.

Example fix

// before
await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['chats', 'read', staleId] }, ctx)

// after
const res = await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['chats', 'read', id] }, ctx)
if (!res.ok && res.kind === 'usage') {
  const list = await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['chats', 'list'] }, ctx)
  // surface list to the user and retry with a chosen id
}

// Verify the id exists before issuing the read by listing first,
// or simply handle the usage result and re-list.
const list = await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['chats','list'] }, ctx)
const known = new Set(list.items.map((s) => s.id))
if (!known.has(sessionId)) {
  return { error: 'Conversation not found locally', kind: 'usage' }
}
await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['chats','read', sessionId] }, ctx)

const res = await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['chats','read', id] }, ctx)
if (!res.ok && res.kind === 'usage' && res.error.startsWith('Conversation not found')) {
  // re-list and prompt the user to pick a current conversation
}

When it happens

Trigger: A session id that was deleted, never existed, is from another device/account, or is mistyped. Also possible after a store reset/migration that changed ids.

Common situations: Stale ids cached in a UI, cross-device sync where the conversation is absent locally, post-migration id format changes, or copy/paste typos.

Related errors

• Missing search query.
• Missing session id.
• Image generation record not found: ${recordId}
• Image generation requires an active chat session.
• Missing --prompt.

AI-assisted analysis of chatboxai/chatbox@81571269ad (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7d578bf7b1d683ed. Report an issue: GitHub.