thedotmack/claude-mem · warning

Prompt watermark bump skipped — write failed, row marked…

Error message

Prompt watermark bump skipped — write failed, row marked pending

What it means

syncUserPrompt writes a single prompt document; if addDocuments does not report exactly 1 written document, the prompts watermark is not advanced, the prompt id is marked pending, and this warning is logged so backfill retries it.

Solutions

1. Check the Chroma client error behind written=0 in logs.
2. Rely on the pending mark so the next backfill re-syncs the prompt.
3. Verify Chroma connectivity and collection existence.
4. If prompts are oversized, truncate or chunk prompt content before sync.

const written = await this.addDocuments([document]);
if (written !== 1) console.warn(`prompt write failed, written=${written}; pending retry expected`);

try { await syncUserPrompt(...); }
catch (e) { /* row marked pending; backfill retries */ }

When it happens

Trigger: addDocuments([document]) returns written !== 1, i.e. 0 — the Chroma upsert failed entirely (connection error, invalid document, collection unavailable).

Common situations: Chroma down or restarting, oversized prompt content rejected, embedding failure for the prompt text.

Related errors

• Observation watermark bump skipped — partial write
• Observation watermark bump skipped — partial write, row…
• Prompt watermark bump skipped — write failed
• Summary watermark bump skipped — partial write
• Summary watermark bump skipped — partial write, row marked…

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@d8bc9755e7 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bfadc00b26e2f33e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/services/sync/ChromaSync.ts:626

      project: project,
      platform_source: normalizePlatformSource(platformSource)
    };

    const document = this.formatUserPromptDoc(stored);

    logger.info('CHROMA_SYNC', 'Syncing user prompt', {
      promptId,
      project
    });

    // Only bump on a confirmed full write — see syncObservation() for rationale.
    const written = await this.addDocuments([document]);
    if (written === 1) {
      ChromaSyncState.clearPending(project, 'prompts', [promptId]);
      ChromaSyncState.bump(project, 'prompts', promptId);
    } else {
      ChromaSyncState.markPending(project, 'prompts', [promptId]);
      logger.warn('CHROMA_SYNC', 'Prompt watermark bump skipped — write failed, row marked pending', {
        promptId,
        project,
        written
      });
    }
  }

  private mergeRowsById<T extends { id: number }>(rows: T[], pendingRows: T[]): T[] {
    const merged = new Map<number, T>();
    for (const row of rows) {
      merged.set(row.id, row);
    }
    for (const row of pendingRows) {
      merged.set(row.id, row);
    }
    return [...merged.values()].sort((a, b) => a.id - b.id);
  }

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