fix(memory-core): silence expected 'missing scope: operator.admin' in dreaming cleanup

ImLukeF · ImLukeF · commit d7c14b5c7bb7 · 2026-04-17T16:53:58.000+10:00
The dreaming cron's narrative cleanup calls subagent.deleteSession, which
dispatches sessions.delete (ADMIN_SCOPE). From a background cron there is
no inherited operator scope, so the plugin subagent falls through to a
synthetic operator client that intentionally defaults to [WRITE_SCOPE] and
does not mint admin (codified by 'rejects fallback session deletion
without minting admin scope' in src/gateway/server-plugins.test.ts).

Result: every dreaming cycle logged
  memory-core: narrative session cleanup failed for &lt;phase&gt; phase: missing scope: operator.admin

The cleanup was already best-effort (try/catch), but the warn surfaced to
users on every cycle and made healthy instances look broken.

Treat the 'missing scope: operator.admin' case as an expected no-op and
suppress the warn for just that specific error. Any other cleanup error
(network, timeout, etc.) still surfaces as warn.

Adds a test locking in the new behavior; existing test covering non-scope
cleanup failures continues to pass unchanged.
diff --git a/extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-narrative.test.ts b/extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-narrative.test.ts
@@ -678,6 +678,31 @@ describe("generateAndAppendDreamNarrative", () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it("does not warn when cleanup fails with missing operator.admin scope (background cron fallback path)", async () => {
+    // The plugin subagent running from a background cron falls through to a
+    // synthetic operator client without admin scope (see
+    // `rejects fallback session deletion without minting admin scope` in
+    // src/gateway/server-plugins.test.ts). `sessions.delete` requires
+    // operator.admin, so this error fires on every dreaming cycle and is
+    // expected — it should not surface as a user-visible warning.
+    const workspaceDir = await createTempWorkspace("openclaw-dreaming-narrative-");
+    const subagent = createMockSubagent("");
+    subagent.deleteSession.mockRejectedValue(new Error("missing scope: operator.admin"));
+    const logger = createMockLogger();
+
+    await generateAndAppendDreamNarrative({
+      subagent,
+      workspaceDir,
+      data: { phase: "rem", snippets: ["some memory"] },
+      logger,
+    });
+
+    expect(subagent.deleteSession).toHaveBeenCalledOnce();
+    expect(logger.warn).not.toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.stringContaining("narrative session cleanup failed"),
+    );
+  });
+
   it("handles subagent error gracefully", async () => {
     const workspaceDir = await createTempWorkspace("openclaw-dreaming-narrative-");
     const subagent = createMockSubagent("");
diff --git a/extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-narrative.ts b/extensions/memory-core/src/dreaming-narrative.ts
@@ -932,9 +932,21 @@ export async function generateAndAppendDreamNarrative(params: {
     try {
       await params.subagent.deleteSession({ sessionKey });
     } catch (cleanupErr) {
-      params.logger.warn(
-        `memory-core: narrative session cleanup failed for ${params.data.phase} phase: ${formatErrorMessage(cleanupErr)}`,
-      );
+      const errMessage = formatErrorMessage(cleanupErr);
+      // `sessions.delete` requires operator.admin. When dreaming runs from a
+      // background cron (no inherited operator scope) the plugin subagent
+      // falls through to a synthetic operator client that intentionally
+      // defaults to [operator.write] and does not mint admin — see
+      // `rejects fallback session deletion without minting admin scope` in
+      // src/gateway/server-plugins.test.ts. That path is guaranteed to reject
+      // delete with "missing scope: operator.admin" on every cycle, so treat
+      // it as an expected no-op rather than emitting noise. Genuine failures
+      // (any other error) are still surfaced as warn.
+      if (!errMessage.includes("missing scope: operator.admin")) {
+        params.logger.warn(
+          `memory-core: narrative session cleanup failed for ${params.data.phase} phase: ${errMessage}`,
+        );
+      }
     }
 
     await scrubDreamingNarrativeArtifacts(params.logger).catch((scrubErr: unknown) => {
