v12.2.1

thedotmack/claude-memv12.2.1Apr 19, 2026by thedotmack

AI Summary

Implements a three-layer defense against infinite summary-retry loops that had been causing repeated session spawns with extra context. Adds parser coercion, stronger prompts, and a circuit breaker to cap consecutive failures.

Key Highlights

Parser coercion maps observation fields to summary fields instead of discarding
Stronger prompt with explicit tag-requirement block and closing reminder
Circuit breaker caps consecutive summary failures at 3 per session
Handles edge cases: empty observation blocks, empty summary wrappers, multiple blocks

New Features

Infinite summary-retry loop prevention with circuit breaker

Full Release Notes

## What's Fixed

### Break infinite summary-retry loop (#1633)

When the summary agent returned `<observation>` tags instead of `<summary>` tags, the parser rejected the response, no summary was stored, the session completed without a summary, and a new session was spawned with ~5–6 KB of extra prompt context — repeating indefinitely.

**Three layers of defense (PR #2072):**

- **Parser coercion** — when a summary is expected, observation fields are mapped to summary fields (title → request/completed, narrative → investigated, facts → learned) instead of discarding the response.
- **Stronger prompt** — summary prompts now include an explicit tag-requirement block and a closing reminder so the LLM is much less likely to emit observation tags in the first place.
- **Circuit breaker** — per-session counter caps consecutive summary failures at 3; further summarize requests are skipped until a success resets it. Explicit `<skip_summary/>` responses are treated as neutral, not failures.

**Edge cases handled:**

- Empty leading `<observation>` blocks fall through to the first populated one.
- Empty `<summary></summary>` wrappers fall back to observation coercion.
- Multiple observation blocks are iterated via a global regex.

Full details: #2072