From 34ce004151c5a03d4beab5cfeddb36cce8373165 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Shadow <shadow@clawd.bot>
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2026 22:40:00 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Gateway: prefer newest session entries in merge (#1823)

---
 CHANGELOG.md                 |  1 +
 src/gateway/session-utils.ts | 48 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
 2 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 35f3ad89c..262c69057 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Status: unreleased.
 - Docs: credit both contributors for Control UI refresh. (#1852) Thanks @EnzeD.
 - Onboarding: add Venice API key to non-interactive flow. (#1893) Thanks @jonisjongithub.
 - Tlon: format thread reply IDs as @ud. (#1837) Thanks @wca4a.
+- Gateway: prefer newest session metadata when combining stores. (#1823) Thanks @emanuelst.
 - CI: increase Node heap size for macOS checks. (#1890) Thanks @realZachi.
 - macOS: avoid crash when rendering code blocks by bumping Textual to 0.3.1. (#2033) Thanks @garricn.
 - Browser: fall back to URL matching for extension relay target resolution. (#1999) Thanks @jonit-dev.
diff --git a/src/gateway/session-utils.ts b/src/gateway/session-utils.ts
index c4046a08e..1cb4cc5c3 100644
--- a/src/gateway/session-utils.ts
+++ b/src/gateway/session-utils.ts
@@ -381,6 +381,31 @@ export function resolveGatewaySessionStoreTarget(params: { cfg: ClawdbotConfig;
   };
 }
 
+// Merge with existing entry based on latest timestamp to ensure data consistency and avoid overwriting with less complete data.
+function mergeSessionEntryIntoCombined(params: {
+  combined: Record<string, SessionEntry>;
+  entry: SessionEntry;
+  agentId: string;
+  canonicalKey: string;
+}) {
+  const { combined, entry, agentId, canonicalKey } = params;
+  const existing = combined[canonicalKey];
+
+  if (existing && (existing.updatedAt ?? 0) > (entry.updatedAt ?? 0)) {
+    combined[canonicalKey] = {
+      ...entry,
+      ...existing,
+      spawnedBy: canonicalizeSpawnedByForAgent(agentId, existing.spawnedBy ?? entry.spawnedBy),
+    };
+  } else {
+    combined[canonicalKey] = {
+      ...existing,
+      ...entry,
+      spawnedBy: canonicalizeSpawnedByForAgent(agentId, entry.spawnedBy ?? existing?.spawnedBy),
+    };
+  }
+}
+
 export function loadCombinedSessionStoreForGateway(cfg: ClawdbotConfig): {
   storePath: string;
   store: Record<string, SessionEntry>;
@@ -393,10 +418,12 @@ export function loadCombinedSessionStoreForGateway(cfg: ClawdbotConfig): {
     const combined: Record<string, SessionEntry> = {};
     for (const [key, entry] of Object.entries(store)) {
       const canonicalKey = canonicalizeSessionKeyForAgent(defaultAgentId, key);
-      combined[canonicalKey] = {
-        ...entry,
-        spawnedBy: canonicalizeSpawnedByForAgent(defaultAgentId, entry.spawnedBy),
-      };
+      mergeSessionEntryIntoCombined({
+        combined,
+        entry,
+        agentId: defaultAgentId,
+        canonicalKey,
+      });
     }
     return { storePath, store: combined };
   }
@@ -408,13 +435,12 @@ export function loadCombinedSessionStoreForGateway(cfg: ClawdbotConfig): {
     const store = loadSessionStore(storePath);
     for (const [key, entry] of Object.entries(store)) {
       const canonicalKey = canonicalizeSessionKeyForAgent(agentId, key);
-      // Merge with existing entry if present (avoid overwriting with less complete data)
-      const existing = combined[canonicalKey];
-      combined[canonicalKey] = {
-        ...existing,
-        ...entry,
-        spawnedBy: canonicalizeSpawnedByForAgent(agentId, entry.spawnedBy ?? existing?.spawnedBy),
-      };
+      mergeSessionEntryIntoCombined({
+        combined,
+        entry,
+        agentId,
+        canonicalKey,
+      });
     }
   }