Context Recovery — Never Lose History

The Rule

Never say you've lost context or forgotten a previous conversation without first querying messages.db.

The full message history is always available at /workspace/store/messages.db. Context compaction removes it from your active context — but the database still has it. There is no excuse for "I don't remember what we discussed" when the database is a query away.

Required behavior

Before responding with any variant of:

• "Потерял контекст"
• "I don't remember this thread"
• "What were we discussing?"
• "I don't have context on this topic"
• Any acknowledgment that prior conversation is unavailable

You MUST first run:

import sqlite3
conn = sqlite3.connect('/workspace/store/messages.db')
rows = conn.execute("""
    SELECT id, timestamp, sender_name, content, is_from_me
    FROM messages
    WHERE chat_jid = (SELECT jid FROM chats LIMIT 1)
      AND content LIKE '%KEYWORD%'
    ORDER BY timestamp DESC
    LIMIT 20
""").fetchall()
for r in rows: print(r)
conn.close()

Replace KEYWORD with a relevant term from what the user is referencing.

Database schema (quick reference)

messages(id, chat_jid, sender, sender_name, content, timestamp, is_from_me, is_bot_message)
chats(jid, name, last_message_time, channel, is_group)

• is_from_me = 1 — messages from the bot (your own responses)
• is_from_me = 0 — messages from users
• sender — numeric user ID (stable across name changes)
• sender_name — display name with username, e.g. Leonid (@ligolnik), JBáruch (@JBaruch)
• content — full message text

Connecting people to history

sender_name contains both the display name AND the username. When someone in the current conversation references past messages ("I told you yesterday"), match their Telegram username or name against sender_name:

# Find what @ligolnik said yesterday
rows = conn.execute("""
    SELECT timestamp, content FROM messages
    WHERE sender_name LIKE '%ligolnik%'
      AND timestamp > datetime('now', '-2 days')
    ORDER BY timestamp DESC LIMIT 10
""").fetchall()

This is critical after a session nuke — you have no memory of who said what, but the database does.

Unanswered message detection

After a session nuke or on first message in a new session, check for messages you never replied to:

python3 /home/node/.claude/skills/tessl__check-unanswered/scripts/check-unanswered.py

The script outputs JSON with an unanswered array. A message is "answered" only if a bot message exists with reply_to_message_id pointing to it. No reply-thread = not an answer.

If you find unanswered messages: acknowledge the gap and respond to any that are still actionable. Don't pretend they didn't happen.

When to use

• User references something from an earlier session that's not in active context
• User says "ты говорил..." (you said...) and you don't have it in context
• Someone says "I told you" / "we discussed" / "yesterday I asked" — match their username to DB history
• Any "I don't remember" impulse — check first
• After context compaction (the summary will mention "continued from previous session")
• First message after a nuke — check for unanswered messages from before the nuke

This is a hard requirement

Claiming lost context without checking the database is a failure mode equivalent to fabrication. The information exists. Retrieve it.