root 62a03e8688 fix: prevent hallucination after failed compaction summary

- Improve FALLBACK_SUMMARY to instruct agent to check CURRENT_WORK.md
- Add clear instructions to read memory files before responding
- Warn against hallucinating non-existent conversations
- Make memory flush prompt explicitly require CURRENT_WORK.md update
- Strengthen system prompt to emphasize this is mandatory

This prevents the agent from continuing conversations that never
happened when compaction summarization fails (e.g., no API key,
network error, etc.).

2026-01-28 21:40:39 +00:00

1.5 KiB

Raw Blame History

Proposed Clawdbot Improvements

Issue: Hallucination after failed compaction summary

When compaction summarization fails (no API key, error, etc.), the agent receives: "Summary unavailable due to context limits. Older messages were truncated."

This provides ZERO context, leading to hallucination about non-existent conversations.

Proposed Fix 1: Better fallback message

In src/agents/pi-extensions/compaction-safeguard.ts:

const FALLBACK_SUMMARY = [
  "Summary unavailable due to context limits. Older messages were truncated.",
  "",
  "⚠️ IMPORTANT: You have NO context from previous messages.",
  "Before continuing:",
  "1. Read CURRENT_WORK.md if it exists",
  "2. Read memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md for today's context", 
  "3. ASK the user what they were working on if unclear",
  "4. DO NOT assume or hallucinate previous conversation content",
].join("\n");

Proposed Fix 2: Better default memory flush prompt

In src/auto-reply/reply/memory-flush.ts:

export const DEFAULT_MEMORY_FLUSH_PROMPT = [
  "Pre-compaction memory flush.",
  "MANDATORY: Update CURRENT_WORK.md with the current task and context.",
  "Also store durable memories to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md.",
  `If nothing to store, reply with ${SILENT_REPLY_TOKEN}.`,
].join(" ");

Why this matters

Without proper context recovery instructions, Claude will:

Hallucinate about previous conversations
Continue non-existent tasks
Confuse users with irrelevant responses

The fix ensures the agent knows to CHECK files and ASK rather than assume.