Issue
Context Changes After Restore
Restoring, reopening, resuming, or reloading a task changes the context that the AI uses to continue the work.
What This Looks Like
The user restores, reopens, resumes, reloads, or returns to an AI task and the context no longer behaves the same way. Prior instructions, file references, decisions, tool state, memory, or assumptions may be missing, altered, or interpreted differently after the restore.
Why It Matters
Restored work needs continuity. If the context changes after restore, the user may believe they are continuing the same task while the AI is operating from a different state. This can cause subtle drift, broken references, repeated work, or decisions based on stale or incomplete context.
Structural Signal
A task state is expected to persist across a restore boundary, but the restored state does not match the original governing context. The issue is not just that the AI behaves differently; it is that continuity across the restore boundary is unstable.
Common Triggers
- Conversation, file, tool, or memory state is only partially restored
- Prior decisions are visible to the user but not active for the model
- A resumed task uses a different model, mode, or runtime context
- References survive as text but lose their underlying object connection
- Hidden system or product state changes between sessions
- The restore process preserves display history but not operational context
When to Use This Issue
Use this Issue when reopening, restoring, resuming, or reloading a task changes the context the AI uses to continue the work.
When Not to Use This Issue
Do not use this Issue when the user intentionally starts a new task or changes instructions after restore. Do not use it for ordinary version changes unless the restore boundary is central to the problem.
Category
Primary Pattern
Declared Patterns
Contract Drift
A structural condition where a declared contract changes but connected structures, implementations, consumers, or expectations do not update in sync.
Persistence Instability
A structural condition where persisted state cannot be stored and restored into an equivalent structure without alteration.
Silent Mutation
A structural condition where a change occurs without a corresponding declared update, authority update, or version change.
Derived Primary Lenses
Convergence Lens
Compares parallel structural systems to determine whether they align under shared authority.
Determinism Lens
Evaluates whether identical structural inputs produce equivalent structural outputs across repeated executions.
Reconciliation Lens
Evaluates whether structural changes align with declared authority updates, version changes, or reconciliation rules.
Reference Stability Lens
Evaluates whether structural references, identifiers, nodes, and edges remain consistent across execution cycles or comparable states.
Derived Secondary Lenses
Related AI-Adjacent Issues
Search Intents
- context changes after restore
- restored chat has different context
- AI context changed after reload
- resume changed AI behavior
- restored task lost context
- AI uses different context after reopening