Fix session list timestamp reset and missing new sessions by dimakis · Pull Request #326 · dimakis/mitzo

dimakis · 2026-05-16T07:03:44Z

Summary

Fixes two bugs in the session list:

All sessions show same timestamp after server restart — when sessions are resumed (e.g., after a server restart), their updated_at timestamps were being reset to "now" instead of being preserved. This caused all recently-resumed sessions to show identical relative times like "18m ago".
Newly created sessions disappear from list — sessions with zero turns and zero prompts that aren't currently active were being filtered out, hiding newly created sessions that hadn't completed their first turn yet.

Changes

server/chat.ts:687-697 — Resume timestamp preservation

Read existing session metadata via eventStore.getSession() before calling upsertSession() on resume
Pass existing updatedAt explicitly to prevent EventStore from defaulting to current time
Only applies when session already exists (resume path); new sessions get natural timestamp

server/chat.ts:1354-1358 — Grace period for new sessions

Keep zero-turn, zero-prompt, inactive sessions visible for 1 hour after creation
After 1 hour with no activity, apply the filter as before (hides automated/discovered sessions)
Handles race conditions where session is created but query loop hasn't finished first turn

Test Plan

Verify session list shows correct relative timestamps (not all identical)
Verify newly created sessions appear in list immediately
Verify sessions created >1h ago with no turns are still filtered out
Restart server and confirm session timestamps don't reset

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

dimakis

Centaur Review

Found 4 issue(s) (2 warning).

`server/chat.ts`

Correct and well-scoped fix for two related session-list bugs; main gap is missing test coverage for the new 1-hour grace period filter logic.

🟡 missing_tests (L1356): The 1-hour grace period logic is not covered by existing tests in server/tests/session-cache.test.ts. The test suite verifies that zero-turn inactive sessions are hidden and that active sessions are shown, but no test creates a recent zero-turn inactive session to verify it's kept, nor an old one to verify it's hidden. Add two tests: one with createdAt < 1 hour ago (should show) and one with createdAt > 1 hour ago (should hide). [fixable]
🟡 regressions (L1356): The old filter unconditionally hid zero-turn, zero-prompt, inactive sessions. The new filter keeps them visible for up to 1 hour. This means sessions discovered from the filesystem (e.g. automated code review sessions) that were created within the last hour will now appear in the session list, where previously they were always hidden. This is likely intentional but is a behavioral change — the PR title mentions 'missing new sessions', so this is presumably the fix for that. Worth a note in the PR description.
🔵 missing_tests (L689): The timestamp-preservation path (passing existing updatedAt on resume) has no direct test at the chat.ts integration level. The underlying EventStore.upsertSession respecting an explicit updatedAt is well-tested in protocol/tests/event-store.test.ts, so the risk is low, but a test in session-cache.test.ts or a chat-level test verifying that resuming a session doesn't change its updatedAt would confirm the end-to-end behavior. [fixable]
🔵 style (L1356): The constant ONE_HOUR is defined inline inside the filter callback and re-created on every call to getSessionsCached (and for every session in the list). Consider hoisting it to module scope or into constants.ts alongside other server-wide constants for reuse and discoverability. [fixable]

dimakis · 2026-05-16T07:05:15Z

-    if (m.numTurns === 0 && m.promptCount === 0 && !m.isActive) return false;
+    // always show regardless of turn count.  Recently created sessions
+    // (< 1 hour) are kept even with no turns — they may still be starting.
+    if (m.numTurns === 0 && m.promptCount === 0 && !m.isActive) {


🟡 missing_tests: The 1-hour grace period logic is not covered by existing tests in server/tests/session-cache.test.ts. The test suite verifies that zero-turn inactive sessions are hidden and that active sessions are shown, but no test creates a recent zero-turn inactive session to verify it's kept, nor an old one to verify it's hidden. Add two tests: one with createdAt < 1 hour ago (should show) and one with createdAt > 1 hour ago (should hide). [fixable]

dimakis · 2026-05-16T07:05:15Z

-    if (m.numTurns === 0 && m.promptCount === 0 && !m.isActive) return false;
+    // always show regardless of turn count.  Recently created sessions
+    // (< 1 hour) are kept even with no turns — they may still be starting.
+    if (m.numTurns === 0 && m.promptCount === 0 && !m.isActive) {


🟡 regressions: The old filter unconditionally hid zero-turn, zero-prompt, inactive sessions. The new filter keeps them visible for up to 1 hour. This means sessions discovered from the filesystem (e.g. automated code review sessions) that were created within the last hour will now appear in the session list, where previously they were always hidden. This is likely intentional but is a behavioral change — the PR title mentions 'missing new sessions', so this is presumably the fix for that. Worth a note in the PR description.

dimakis · 2026-05-16T07:05:15Z

  // even if the query loop dies before the first assistant event.
+  // Preserve existing updatedAt so server restarts don't reset all timestamps.
  if (options.resume) {
+    const existingMeta = eventStore.getSession(options.resume);


🔵 missing_tests: The timestamp-preservation path (passing existing updatedAt on resume) has no direct test at the chat.ts integration level. The underlying EventStore.upsertSession respecting an explicit updatedAt is well-tested in protocol/tests/event-store.test.ts, so the risk is low, but a test in session-cache.test.ts or a chat-level test verifying that resuming a session doesn't change its updatedAt would confirm the end-to-end behavior. [fixable]

dimakis · 2026-05-16T07:05:15Z

-    if (m.numTurns === 0 && m.promptCount === 0 && !m.isActive) return false;
+    // always show regardless of turn count.  Recently created sessions
+    // (< 1 hour) are kept even with no turns — they may still be starting.
+    if (m.numTurns === 0 && m.promptCount === 0 && !m.isActive) {


🔵 style: The constant ONE_HOUR is defined inline inside the filter callback and re-created on every call to getSessionsCached (and for every session in the list). Consider hoisting it to module scope or into constants.ts alongside other server-wide constants for reuse and discoverability. [fixable]

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

dimakis · 2026-05-16T07:37:08Z

Centaur Review

Found 4 issue(s) (2 warning).

`server/tests/session-cache.test.ts`

Solid fix for timestamp preservation and grace period filtering. Main concern is the existing test at line 79 now relies on NaN arithmetic to pass — it should explicitly set createdAt to an old timestamp to properly exercise the new code path.

🟡 bugs (L79): Existing test 'hides sessions with numTurns=0...' no longer matches the implementation's logic path. After this PR, the filter accesses m.createdAt, but the mock at line 79 doesn't include createdAt. The test passes accidentally because Date.now() - undefined yields NaN, and NaN < ZERO_TURN_GRACE_MS is false. This is fragile — if createdAt handling changes (e.g., a default fallback), the test could silently break. Add createdAt: 1000 (or a similarly old timestamp) to the sess-unused mock to explicitly test the 'past grace period' path. [fixable]
🟡 missing_tests (L392): The 'resume timestamp preservation' tests re-implement the upsert logic from chat.ts inline rather than calling the actual function (_startChatInner or a testable wrapper). They verify that the mock pattern works, not that the real code does the right thing. If the implementation in chat.ts drifts from this pattern (e.g., someone changes the spread order or condition), these tests will still pass while the real behavior is broken. Consider testing through the actual exported function if possible, or at minimum add a comment acknowledging this is a pattern test.

`server/chat.ts`

Solid fix for timestamp preservation and grace period filtering. Main concern is the existing test at line 79 now relies on NaN arithmetic to pass — it should explicitly set createdAt to an old timestamp to properly exercise the new code path.

🔵 unsafe_assumptions (L1357): Date.now() is called on every filter iteration inside getSessionsCached(). For large session lists, this creates slightly different timestamps across items. Not a practical bug, but extracting const now = Date.now() before the .filter() call would be more precise and consistent — and avoids repeated syscalls. [fixable]
🔵 style (L38): The constant ZERO_TURN_GRACE_MS is well-named but lives at module top-level in chat.ts, which is already a large file. Consider colocating it with SESSION_PAGE_SIZE in constants.ts since it's also a session-list behavioral constant. [fixable]

dimakis · 2026-05-16T08:23:01Z

/review

…) call Addresses Centaur review feedback on PR #326: - Move ZERO_TURN_GRACE_MS from chat.ts to constants.ts for better discoverability and reuse - Extract Date.now() before filter loop to avoid redundant calls on each iteration Tests remain passing (session-cache.test.ts covers grace period logic). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…-turn sessions Two bugs in session list rendering: 1. **Timestamp reset on resume**: When sessions were resumed (e.g. on server restart), upsertSession() was called without updatedAt, causing the EventStore to default to "now". This made all recently-resumed sessions show identical timestamps. Fix: read existing updatedAt via getSession() and pass it through explicitly. 2. **Missing new sessions**: Zero-turn, zero-prompt, inactive sessions were filtered out, hiding newly created sessions that hadn't completed their first turn yet. Fix: keep sessions visible for 1 hour after creation, then apply the filter. Fixes session list showing all sessions with same "18m ago" timestamp and newly created sessions disappearing before first message completes. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…) call Addresses Centaur review feedback on PR #326: - Move ZERO_TURN_GRACE_MS from chat.ts to constants.ts for better discoverability and reuse - Extract Date.now() before filter loop to avoid redundant calls on each iteration Tests remain passing (session-cache.test.ts covers grace period logic). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

dimakis · 2026-05-17T21:04:10Z

/review

dimakis

Codex Review

LGTM — no issues found.

dimakis commented May 16, 2026

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dimakis added a commit that referenced this pull request May 16, 2026

fix(server): address PR #326 review — hoist constant + add test coverage

36ef1aa

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

dimakis and others added 3 commits May 17, 2026 17:58

fix(server): address PR #326 review — hoist constant + add test coverage

03cddfb

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

dimakis force-pushed the fix/session-list-timestamp-and-filter branch from d3a574c to f0789f1 Compare May 17, 2026 16:59

dimakis added the openai Trigger Codex review label May 17, 2026

dimakis commented May 17, 2026

View reviewed changes

dimakis merged commit 57f27ab into main May 17, 2026
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Fix session list timestamp reset and missing new sessions#326

Fix session list timestamp reset and missing new sessions#326
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dimakis commented May 16, 2026

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Centaur Review

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`server/chat.ts`

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