# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Pruning stale native-compaction checkpoints

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

These items address a bug where shadowed native-compaction checkpoints are never removed, causing unreachable ciphertext to inflate storage. The work involves pruning those stale checkpoints from transcripts, child sessions, persisted rows, and the wire builder.

## TL;DR

- 4 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 1 merged PR(s), 2 PR(s) closed without merging.
- A fix was merged to main in PR #115833. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #115833 (and any competing PRs below) before filing. Confirm the merged change covers your symptom.

## Maintainer resolution verdict

- Internal-tracker verdict over this cluster's issue members: `resolved` · deciding PR(s): `pr-115833`. This is distinct from the fix status above. Weigh it yourself.

## How this cluster was grouped

- Link evidence (`STRUCTURAL_SPANNING`): every member is connected by structural evidence: shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference.
- Pairwise link density `0.50`: the share of member pairs that carry a link, counting a structural link in full and a relevance-only link at 0.36. `1.00` means every pair is linked.

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #102374: \[Bug\]: Stale native-compaction checkpoints are retained forever — unreachable ciphertext inflates the tail budget and dominates state.db growth

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#115833: fix(compression): shadowed native-compaction checkpoints are pruned from the compacted transcript, child sessions and persisted rows (#102374, salvage #102378)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`
  - files: `agent/context_compressor.py`, `agent/session_persistence.py`, `hermes_state_messages.py`, `tests/agent/test_stale_replay_prune.py`, `tests/hermes_state/test_append_messages_batch.py`
- **#102378: fix(compression): prune native-compaction checkpoints a newer carrier shadows**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `merged_via`; implication `superseded`; refs `1947f74cc41a`, `#115833`, `#102374`, `#102378`
- **#102393: context_compressor: prune stale checkpoints to match wire builder**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `c157c2e7ac077d319ceb3d780ec401f3b0d7e2b1`, `#102378`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #115833 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-09-19`.
- Subsystem: `agent`