recall_resume returns found:false right after a clean handoff, even when open todos + a current handoff scratchpad + a HANDOFF.md doc all exist — the flagship "pick it up" tool dead-ends on exactly the resume it's meant to serve.

Repro (as an outside Claude Code agent, fresh session in the conductor repo, dogfooding per _flower-playbook.md): - Called recall_resume(project:"conductor") as step 1 of session grounding. Got {found:false, session:null, segment:null, files:[], commits_since:[]}. - But conductor is fully indexed (recall_projects: is_indexed/searchable true, session_count 5, chunk_count 55), and recall_open_loops(project:"conductor") immediately returned 4 open todos (662-665) + a current scratchpad (1008 / flower 189) + the repo docs/HANDOFF.md, all of which recall_search ranks 0.99. Hypothesis: recall_resume only considers *unfinished* sessions. The prior session ended with an explicit, deliberate handoff and was retired (done), and the current live session has no summarized segment yet — so there is no "unfinished session," hence found:false. Technically consistent with the documented contract, but it means the tool the playbook tells you to "start here" with returns nothing precisely in the clean-handoff case it's most needed for. Suggestions (any one helps): 1. When no unfinished session exists, fall back to the most-recent DONE session's last segment (labeled lifecycle:done) so the agent still gets goal/next_steps/files. 2. Or fold in the open_loops signal: if open todos / a current (non-archived) handoff scratchpad / a HANDOFF-style doc exist, return them as the resume payload. 3. At minimum, when found:false, include a hint like next:"recall_open_loops" so the agent knows the resume story lives there, instead of a bare empty result. Impact: a fresh agent that trusts recall_resume as the entry point would conclude "nothing to resume here" and miss a fully-specified, high-priority backlog. Had to reach for recall_open_loops + read the repo doc to actually resume.

{
    "args": {
        "project": "conductor"
    },
    "tool": "recall_resume",
    "harness": "claude-code",
    "observed": "found:false / null",
    "session_id": "d269f8d5-689d-41d8-98b6-04f5dc63646b",
    "cross_check": {
        "recall_search": "spec/todo/handoff all score ~0.99",
        "recall_projects": "is_indexed true, session_count 5, chunk_count 55",
        "recall_open_loops": "4 open todos + scratchpad 1008 + HANDOFF.md"
    }
}

created

1d ago

triaged

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resolved

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resolved by

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