What causes "Session ${sessionDbId} not found" in thedotmack/claude-mem?

Verify the sessionDbId exists: query `SELECT id FROM sdk_sessions WHERE id = ?` before calling getSessionById, or use the store's own getter that returns undefined.

thedotmack/claude-mem · error · Error

Session ${sessionDbId} not found

Error message

Session ${sessionDbId} not found

What it means

Thrown by DatabaseManager.getSessionById when the underlying session store returns no row for the given sessionDbId. This is a thin existence guard: the numeric id was passed in but does not correspond to any sdk_sessions row. The caller gets a typed session object or this error — there is no null return.

Source

Thrown at src/services/worker/DatabaseManager.ts:109

    if (!this.db) {
      throw new Error('Database not initialized');
    }
    return this.db;
  }

  getSessionById(sessionDbId: number): {
    id: number;
    content_session_id: string;
    memory_session_id: string | null;
    project: string;
    platform_source: string;
    user_prompt: string;
    custom_title: string | null;
    status: string;
  } {
    const session = this.getSessionStore().getSessionById(sessionDbId);
    if (!session) {
      throw new Error(`Session ${sessionDbId} not found`);
    }
    return session;
  }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to d768ba3643)

Solutions

Verify the sessionDbId exists: query `SELECT id FROM sdk_sessions WHERE id = ?` before calling getSessionById, or use the store's own getter that returns undefined.
If the id came from a message/event, confirm it was produced by the same database the worker is using.
Handle the 'not found' case gracefully (skip/log) rather than letting it propagate if stale ids are expected.
Check for a pruning/cleanup job that removed the session between id capture and lookup.

Example fix

// before: const s = dbManager.getSessionById(id); // throws if missing
// after:  const raw = dbManager.getSessionStore().getSessionById(id);
//         if (!raw) { logger.warn('DB', 'session missing', { id }); return; }
//         const s = raw;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Check existence via the store (returns undefined, not throw) before the typed getter:
function getSessionOrUndefined(db: DatabaseManager, id: number) {
  const raw = db.getSessionStore().getSessionById(id);
  return raw ?? null;
}
// usage:
const s = getSessionOrUndefined(dbManager, sessionDbId);
if (!s) { logger.warn('DB', 'session not found', { sessionDbId }); return; }

Try / catch

try { return dbManager.getSessionById(sessionDbId); }
catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && /^Session \d+ not found$/.test(e.message)) {
    logger.warn('DB', e.message); // stale id; skip
    return null;
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Use the store-level getter (returns undefined) when absence is expected; reserve getSessionById for cases where absence is an error.
Re-verify session ids captured from events against the live DB before heavy use.
Guard pruning jobs so they don't remove sessions still referenced by in-flight work.

When it happens

Trigger: getSessionById(sessionDbId) delegates to getSessionStore().getSessionById(id); if it returns falsy, throw `Session ${sessionDbId} not found`. Reachable from any code path that resolves a numeric session id to a full row (worker processing, timeline, search).

Common situations: A stale/cached sessionDbId after the session was deleted, an id from a different database/profile, a race where the session was pruned between lookup and use, or an off-by-one/wrong id passed by the caller. Common in multi-device setups where ids are not globally aligned.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@d768ba3643 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dcf6604efcf3f394. Report an issue: GitHub.