`hermes sessions optimize`, `optimize-storage` and `prune` now run the same fail-closed
holder scan doctor and repair use before rewriting the store. While a gateway, Desktop,
dashboard or cron process holds state.db (or a WAL sidecar) they print each holder as
`PID N (command)` with the stop remedy and exit 1; `--force` overrides with a warning,
`--dry-run` previews are never gated. The Desktop console's `sessions optimize` gets the
same refusal. Why: a user ran `optimize-storage` under a fleet of eight live gateways and
every agent answered every turn with the retired-WAL refusal until all writers were
stopped by hand (#110054, maintainer follow-up 09-20).
The DeletedWalGenerationError text is now two layers: a first sentence for the person
reading a chat bubble or banner (what happened, nothing is lost, quit every Hermes
process on the profile, `hermes doctor` names the holders, never `doctor --fix` or delete
files while they run, docs link), then the operator detail. The classifier fingerprint
"deleted state.db-wal or state.db-shm" is unchanged. The cause table
(`hermes_state_user_copy`, feeding the CLI banner, TUI/Desktop RPC error and the gateway
home-channel notice) and the chat explainer carry the same first steps; the gateway
notice no longer hardcodes `doctor --fix` + `gateway restart` for every non-corrupt cause,
which for a held retired generation is the second-writer trap.
New user-guide page `session-storage-recovery.md` (registered in sidebars, linked from the
guard text, the developer state-db-recovery page and the sessions guide): the three steps,
the do-nots, why maintenance refuses, and what the files beside state.db are
(retired-wal captures + manifest.json, pre-update-emergency backups, corrupt backups,
snapshots).
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