fix: prevent memory CLI hangs

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.clawd.bot
 
 ### Changes
 - Highlight: Lobster optional plugin tool for typed workflows + approval gates. https://docs.clawd.bot/tools/lobster
+- Memory: prevent CLI hangs by deferring vector probes, adding sqlite-vec/embedding timeouts, and showing sync progress early.
 - Docs: add troubleshooting entry for gateway.mode blocking gateway start. https://docs.clawd.bot/gateway/troubleshooting
 - Onboarding: remove the run setup-token auth option (paste setup-token or reuse CLI creds instead).
 - Signal: add typing indicators and DM read receipts via signal-cli.

src/cli/memory-cli.ts

@@ -323,9 +323,11 @@ export async function runMemoryStatus(opts: MemoryCommandOptions) {
     }
     if (status.vector) {
       const vectorState = status.vector.enabled
-        ? status.vector.available
+        ? status.vector.available === undefined
-          ? "ready"
+          ? "unknown"
-          : "unavailable"
+          : status.vector.available
+            ? "ready"
+            : "unavailable"
         : "disabled";
       const vectorColor =
         vectorState === "ready"

src/cli/update-cli.ts

@@ -589,16 +589,20 @@ export async function updateCommand(opts: UpdateCommandOptions): Promise<void> {
   let tag = explicitTag ?? channelToNpmTag(channel);
   if (updateInstallKind !== "git") {
     const currentVersion = switchToPackage ? null : await readPackageVersion(root);
+    let fallbackToLatest = false;
     const targetVersion = explicitTag
       ? await resolveTargetVersion(tag, timeoutMs)
       : await resolveNpmChannelTag({ channel, timeoutMs }).then((resolved) => {
           tag = resolved.tag;
+          fallbackToLatest = channel === "beta" && resolved.tag === "latest";
           return resolved.version;
         });
     const cmp =
       currentVersion && targetVersion ? compareSemverStrings(currentVersion, targetVersion) : null;
     const needsConfirm =
-      currentVersion != null && (targetVersion == null || (cmp != null && cmp > 0));
+      !fallbackToLatest &&
+      currentVersion != null &&
+      (targetVersion == null || (cmp != null && cmp > 0));
 
     if (needsConfirm && !opts.yes) {
       if (!process.stdin.isTTY || opts.json) {

src/memory/manager.ts

@@ -102,6 +102,11 @@ const EMBEDDING_RETRY_BASE_DELAY_MS = 500;
 const EMBEDDING_RETRY_MAX_DELAY_MS = 8000;
 const BATCH_FAILURE_LIMIT = 2;
 const SESSION_DELTA_READ_CHUNK_BYTES = 64 * 1024;
+const VECTOR_LOAD_TIMEOUT_MS = 30_000;
+const EMBEDDING_QUERY_TIMEOUT_REMOTE_MS = 60_000;
+const EMBEDDING_QUERY_TIMEOUT_LOCAL_MS = 5 * 60_000;
+const EMBEDDING_BATCH_TIMEOUT_REMOTE_MS = 2 * 60_000;
+const EMBEDDING_BATCH_TIMEOUT_LOCAL_MS = 10 * 60_000;
 
 const log = createSubsystemLogger("memory");
 
@@ -281,7 +286,7 @@ export class MemoryIndexManager {
       ? await this.searchKeyword(cleaned, candidates).catch(() => [])
       : [];
 
-    const queryVec = await this.provider.embedQuery(cleaned);
+    const queryVec = await this.embedQueryWithTimeout(cleaned);
     const hasVector = queryVec.some((v) => v !== 0);
     const vectorResults = hasVector
       ? await this.searchVector(queryVec, candidates).catch(() => [])
@@ -580,9 +585,23 @@ export class MemoryIndexManager {
   private async ensureVectorReady(dimensions?: number): Promise<boolean> {
     if (!this.vector.enabled) return false;
     if (!this.vectorReady) {
-      this.vectorReady = this.loadVectorExtension();
+      this.vectorReady = this.withTimeout(
+        this.loadVectorExtension(),
+        VECTOR_LOAD_TIMEOUT_MS,
+        `sqlite-vec load timed out after ${Math.round(VECTOR_LOAD_TIMEOUT_MS / 1000)}s`,
+      );
+    }
+    let ready = false;
+    try {
+      ready = await this.vectorReady;
+    } catch (err) {
+      const message = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
+      this.vector.available = false;
+      this.vector.loadError = message;
+      this.vectorReady = null;
+      log.warn(`sqlite-vec unavailable: ${message}`);
+      return false;
     }
-    const ready = await this.vectorReady;
     if (ready && typeof dimensions === "number" && dimensions > 0) {
       this.ensureVectorTable(dimensions);
     }
@@ -1153,6 +1172,13 @@ export class MemoryIndexManager {
     progress?: (update: MemorySyncProgressUpdate) => void;
   }) {
     const progress = params?.progress ? this.createSyncProgress(params.progress) : undefined;
+    if (progress) {
+      progress.report({
+        completed: progress.completed,
+        total: progress.total,
+        label: "Loading vector extension…",
+      });
+    }
     const vectorReady = await this.ensureVectorReady();
     const meta = this.readMeta();
     const needsFullReindex =
@@ -1844,7 +1870,17 @@ export class MemoryIndexManager {
     let delayMs = EMBEDDING_RETRY_BASE_DELAY_MS;
     while (true) {
       try {
-        return await this.provider.embedBatch(texts);
+        const timeoutMs = this.resolveEmbeddingTimeout("batch");
+        log.debug("memory embeddings: batch start", {
+          provider: this.provider.id,
+          items: texts.length,
+          timeoutMs,
+        });
+        return await this.withTimeout(
+          this.provider.embedBatch(texts),
+          timeoutMs,
+          `memory embeddings batch timed out after ${Math.round(timeoutMs / 1000)}s`,
+        );
       } catch (err) {
         const message = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
         if (!this.isRetryableEmbeddingError(message) || attempt >= EMBEDDING_RETRY_MAX_ATTEMPTS) {
@@ -1868,6 +1904,41 @@ export class MemoryIndexManager {
     );
   }
 
+  private resolveEmbeddingTimeout(kind: "query" | "batch"): number {
+    const isLocal = this.provider.id === "local";
+    if (kind === "query") {
+      return isLocal ? EMBEDDING_QUERY_TIMEOUT_LOCAL_MS : EMBEDDING_QUERY_TIMEOUT_REMOTE_MS;
+    }
+    return isLocal ? EMBEDDING_BATCH_TIMEOUT_LOCAL_MS : EMBEDDING_BATCH_TIMEOUT_REMOTE_MS;
+  }
+
+  private async embedQueryWithTimeout(text: string): Promise<number[]> {
+    const timeoutMs = this.resolveEmbeddingTimeout("query");
+    log.debug("memory embeddings: query start", { provider: this.provider.id, timeoutMs });
+    return await this.withTimeout(
+      this.provider.embedQuery(text),
+      timeoutMs,
+      `memory embeddings query timed out after ${Math.round(timeoutMs / 1000)}s`,
+    );
+  }
+
+  private async withTimeout<T>(
+    promise: Promise<T>,
+    timeoutMs: number,
+    message: string,
+  ): Promise<T> {
+    if (!Number.isFinite(timeoutMs) || timeoutMs <= 0) return await promise;
+    let timer: NodeJS.Timeout | null = null;
+    const timeoutPromise = new Promise<never>((_, reject) => {
+      timer = setTimeout(() => reject(new Error(message)), timeoutMs);
+    });
+    try {
+      return (await Promise.race([promise, timeoutPromise])) as T;
+    } finally {
+      if (timer) clearTimeout(timer);
+    }
+  }
+
   private async runWithConcurrency<T>(tasks: Array<() => Promise<T>>, limit: number): Promise<T[]> {
     if (tasks.length === 0) return [];
     const resolvedLimit = Math.max(1, Math.min(limit, tasks.length));