From 714459a954fd02bbf113c741fc873e15bedfbf52 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: clawsweeper <274271284+clawsweeper[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sat, 2 May 2026 22:04:04 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] fix(active-memory): fast-fail stalled recall paths

---
 CHANGELOG.md                           |  1 +
 extensions/active-memory/index.test.ts | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 extensions/active-memory/index.ts      | 11 +++----
 3 files changed, 48 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d14897f3192..5392de22b4b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 
 - CLI/plugins: stop treating the non-plugin `auth` command root as a bundled plugin id, so restrictive `plugins.allow` configs no longer tell users to add stale `auth` plugin entries.
 - Doctor/plugins: update configured plugin installs whose stale manifests still declare channels without `channelConfigs`, so beta upgrades repair old Discord-style package payloads during `doctor --fix`.
+- Active Memory: keep non-empty `memory_search` results from being fast-failed as empty when debug telemetry reports zero hits.
 - Plugins/externalization: repair missing configured plugin installs from npm by default, reserve ClawHub downloads for explicit `clawhubSpec` metadata, and cover agent-runtime/env-selected plugin repair. Thanks @vincentkoc.
 - Upgrade/config: validate configured web-search providers and statically suppressed model/provider pairs against the active plugin set at config load, so stale plugin state fails loud before runtime fallback.
 - Status/update: resolve beta update-channel checks from the installed version when config still says `stable`, and let `status --deep` reuse live gateway channel credential state instead of warning on command-path-only token misses.
diff --git a/extensions/active-memory/index.test.ts b/extensions/active-memory/index.test.ts
index a78827c1370..a4cdea89ff8 100644
--- a/extensions/active-memory/index.test.ts
+++ b/extensions/active-memory/index.test.ts
@@ -2342,6 +2342,49 @@ describe("active-memory plugin", () => {
     ]);
   });
 
+  it("does not fast-fail memory_search results solely because debug hits is zero", async () => {
+    __testing.setMinimumTimeoutMsForTests(1);
+    __testing.setSetupGraceTimeoutMsForTests(0);
+    api.pluginConfig = {
+      agents: ["main"],
+      timeoutMs: 500,
+      logging: true,
+    };
+    plugin.register(api as unknown as OpenClawPluginApi);
+    const sessionKey = "agent:main:terminal-zero-hit-with-results";
+    hoisted.sessionStore[sessionKey] = {
+      sessionId: "s-terminal-zero-hit-with-results",
+      updatedAt: 0,
+    };
+    runEmbeddedPiAgent.mockImplementationOnce(async (params: { sessionFile: string }) => {
+      await writeTranscriptJsonl(params.sessionFile, [
+        {
+          message: {
+            role: "toolResult",
+            toolName: "memory_search",
+            details: {
+              results: [{ path: "memory/food.md", text: "User usually orders ramen." }],
+              debug: { backend: "qmd", hits: 0, searchMs: 8 },
+            },
+          },
+        },
+      ]);
+      await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 50));
+      return { payloads: [{ text: "User usually orders ramen." }] };
+    });
+
+    const result = await hooks.before_prompt_build(
+      { prompt: "what food do i usually order? zero hit with results", messages: [] },
+      { agentId: "main", trigger: "user", sessionKey, messageProvider: "webchat" },
+    );
+
+    expect(result?.prependContext).toContain("User usually orders ramen.");
+    expect(getActiveMemoryLines(sessionKey)).toEqual([
+      expect.stringContaining("🧩 Active Memory: status=ok"),
+      expect.stringContaining("🔎 Active Memory Debug: backend=qmd searchMs=8 hits=0"),
+    ]);
+  });
+
   it("fast-fails unavailable memory_search results without injecting provider errors", async () => {
     const CONFIGURED_TIMEOUT_MS = 1_000;
     __testing.setMinimumTimeoutMsForTests(1);
diff --git a/extensions/active-memory/index.ts b/extensions/active-memory/index.ts
index 743b68b0dc2..825f8e6a82c 100644
--- a/extensions/active-memory/index.ts
+++ b/extensions/active-memory/index.ts
@@ -1595,13 +1595,10 @@ function extractTerminalMemorySearchResultFromSessionRecord(
   const disabled = details?.disabled === true;
   const unavailable =
     disabled || Boolean(debug?.warning) || Boolean(debug?.error) || Boolean(details?.error);
-  const hits =
-    typeof debug?.hits === "number" && Number.isFinite(debug.hits)
-      ? debug.hits
-      : results
-        ? results.length
-        : undefined;
-  if (unavailable || hits === 0) {
+  const debugHits =
+    typeof debug?.hits === "number" && Number.isFinite(debug.hits) ? debug.hits : undefined;
+  const zeroHitSearch = results !== undefined ? results.length === 0 : debugHits === 0;
+  if (unavailable || zeroHitSearch) {
     return { status: "empty", searchDebug: debug };
   }
   return undefined;