The #160 session-lifecycle CLI triplet was asymmetric: list-sessions and
delete-session accepted --directory + --output-format and emitted typed
JSON error envelopes, but load-session had neither flag and dumped a raw
Python traceback (including the SessionNotFoundError class name) on a
missing session.
Three concrete impacts this fix closes:
1. Alternate session-store locations (e.g. /tmp/claw-run-XXX/.port_sessions)
were unreachable via load-session; claws had to chdir or monkeypatch
DEFAULT_SESSION_DIR to work around it.
2. Not-found emitted a multi-line Python stack, not a parseable envelope.
Claws deciding retry/escalate/give-up had only exit code 1 to work with.
3. The traceback leaked 'src.session_store.SessionNotFoundError' verbatim,
coupling version-pinned claws to our internal exception class name.
Now all three triplet commands accept the same flag pair and emit the
same JSON error shape:
Success (json mode):
{"session_id": "alpha", "loaded": true, "messages_count": 3,
"input_tokens": 42, "output_tokens": 99}
Not-found:
{"session_id": "missing", "loaded": false,
"error": {"kind": "session_not_found",
"message": "session 'missing' not found in /path",
"directory": "/path", "retryable": false}}
Corrupted file:
{"session_id": "broken", "loaded": false,
"error": {"kind": "session_load_failed",
"message": "...", "directory": "/path",
"retryable": true}}
Exit code contract:
- 0 on successful load
- 1 on not-found (preserves existing $?)
- 1 on OSError/JSONDecodeError (distinct 'kind' in JSON)
Backward compat: legacy 'claw load-session ID' text output unchanged
byte-for-byte. Only new behaviour is the flags and structured error path.
Tests (tests/test_load_session_cli.py, 13 tests):
- TestDirectoryFlagParity (2): --directory works + fallback to CWD/.port_sessions
- TestOutputFormatFlagParity (2): json schema + text-mode backward compat
- TestNotFoundTypedError (2): JSON envelope on not-found; no traceback in
either mode; no internal class name leak
- TestLoadFailedDistinctFromNotFound (1): corrupted file = session_load_failed
with retryable=true, distinct from session_not_found
- TestTripletParityConsistency (6): parametrised over [list, delete, load] *
[--directory, --output-format] — explicit parity guard for future regressions
Full suite: 80/80 passing, zero regression.
Discovered via Jobdori dogfood sweep 2026-04-22 17:44 KST — ran
'claw load-session nonexistent' expecting a clean error, got a Python
traceback. Filed #165 + fixed in same commit.
Closes ROADMAP #165.
