thedotmack/claude-mem · error · Error

Corpus " " has no session — call prime first

Error message

Corpus "${corpus.name}" has no session — call prime first

What it means

KnowledgeAgent.query() requires the corpus to have been primed: corpus.session_id must be set, otherwise it throws. The session_id ties queries to an existing Claude conversation that already ingested the corpus, so querying without one is an invalid state, not a retryable failure.

Solutions

1. Call agent.prime(corpus) once before the first query to establish the session
2. Reload the corpus via corpusStore.read() to pick up a session_id written by another process
3. If the file legitimately has no session_id, prime it rather than hand-editing the JSON
4. Automate priming in your pipeline so query always follows a successful prime

Example fix

// before
const corpus = corpusStore.read('docs');
const answer = await agent.query(corpus, 'what changed?'); // throws
// after
let corpus = corpusStore.read('docs');
if (!corpus.session_id) {
  await agent.prime(corpus);
  corpus = corpusStore.read('docs');
}
const answer = await agent.query(corpus, 'what changed?');

function isPrimed(corpus: { session_id?: string | null }): corpus is typeof corpus & { session_id: string } {
  return typeof corpus.session_id === 'string' && corpus.session_id.length > 0;
}
// usage
if (!isPrimed(corpus)) await agent.prime(corpus);

function hasSession(c: { session_id?: string | null }): c is typeof c & { session_id: string } {
  return typeof c.session_id === 'string' && c.session_id.length > 0;
}

try {
  return await agent.query(corpus, question);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.includes('has no session')) {
    await agent.prime(corpus);
    const fresh = corpusStore.read(corpus.name);
    return agent.query(fresh, question);
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling query() on a freshly loaded CorpusFile whose session_id was never written (prime never ran), on a corpus file created by another tool without priming, or on a hand-edited JSON corpus file where session_id was removed.

Common situations: Deploying a new corpus file and immediately running queries without a prime step; restoring corpus JSON from backup where session_id was null; a previous prime crashed (see error 155) leaving the file without a session; stale in-memory CorpusFile object.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid state transition" errors: "status must be X, actually Y", "already rejected/charging/uninstalled", "cannot ... while running" — what they mean when a library rejects your call — this error's family across 31 libraries.

Related errors

• Auto-reprime failed for corpus
• Cannot process summary: memorySessionId not yet captured…
• chroma-mcp connection cancelled during shutdown
• cloud sync must be configured before queueDelete
• Failed to capture session_id while priming corpus

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@d8bc9755e7 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3a3ad230abcceb51. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/services/worker/knowledge/KnowledgeAgent.ts:86

        }
      } else {
        throw error;
      }
    }

    if (!sessionId) {
      throw new Error(`Failed to capture session_id while priming corpus "${corpus.name}"`);
    }

    corpus.session_id = sessionId;
    this.corpusStore.write(corpus);

    return sessionId;
  }

  async query(corpus: CorpusFile, question: string): Promise<QueryResult> {
    if (!corpus.session_id) {
      throw new Error(`Corpus "${corpus.name}" has no session — call prime first`);
    }

    try {
      const result = await this.executeQuery(corpus, question);
      if (result.session_id !== corpus.session_id) {
        corpus.session_id = result.session_id;
        this.corpusStore.write(corpus);
      }
      return result;
    } catch (error) {
      if (!this.isSessionResumeError(error)) {
        if (error instanceof Error) {
          logger.error('WORKER', `Query failed for corpus "${corpus.name}"`, {}, error);
        } else {
          logger.error('WORKER', `Query failed for corpus "${corpus.name}" (non-Error thrown)`, { thrownValue: String(error) });
        }
        throw error;
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to d8bc9755e7)