Correction to Original Issue

The original issue incorrectly stated that no hook exists for session reset events. That was wrong.

OpenClaw's plugin SDK already provides before_reset as a PluginHookName (defined in plugins/types.d.ts, type PluginHookBeforeResetEvent). The hook fires before /new or idle-timeout resets. lossless-claw v0.4.0 does not register a handler for it — in fact, the plugin uses no api.on() hooks at all.

Question

Is this intentional?

We can see reasons why it would be:

1. Messages are persistent. Nothing is physically lost on /new. Everything stays in lcm.db and is recoverable via lcm_grep / lcm_expand.
2. Forced compaction on thin context = poor summaries. If someone runs /new after 3 messages, a forced summary would fragment the DAG with low-quality nodes.
3. The LCM tools ARE the recovery mechanism. Four retrieval tools exist specifically for reaching into past conversations — whether summarized or not.
4. The plugin deliberately uses only the ContextEngine interface, not event hooks. This looks like an architectural choice, not an oversight.

So the philosophy may be: "Summarize only when context-window pressure demands it, not prophylactically. The data is safe, the tools can find it."

Our Use Case

We added a before_reset handler (~40 lines) that forces compaction before /new resets. The motivation: when a new session starts, assemble() only returns summaries + fresh tail from the current conversation. Without a summary from the previous conversation, the agent starts with zero carried-over context — even though the raw messages exist in the DB.

The LCM tools can recover this, but it requires the agent (or user) to actively search for prior context. A summary written at reset would make context carryover automatic via assemble().

We're not sure this is the right trade-off. Forced summaries on short conversations would be noisy. But for longer conversations that reset before hitting the compaction threshold, it feels like a gap.

Is there a design reason this was left out, or would a PR with an opt-in compactOnReset: true config flag be welcome?

Environment

• OpenClaw: 2026.3.13+
• lossless-claw: 0.4.0
• before_reset hook available in SDK since at least current OpenClaw release