From 708a8fd715804b812e5ef61b5ff751edcfa20fb2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Affaan Mustafa <affaan@dcube.ai>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2026 06:21:21 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix: clarify loop status empty output

---
 scripts/loop-status.js            |  4 +++-
 tests/scripts/loop-status.test.js | 11 +++++++++++
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/scripts/loop-status.js b/scripts/loop-status.js
index 454ef6b0..98844590 100644
--- a/scripts/loop-status.js
+++ b/scripts/loop-status.js
@@ -551,7 +551,9 @@ function formatText(payload) {
   if (payload.sessions.length === 0) {
     const lines = [
       `ECC loop status (${payload.generatedAt})`,
-      `No Claude transcript JSONL files found under ${payload.source.transcriptRoot}.`,
+      skippedLines.length > 0
+        ? 'No readable Claude transcript JSONL files were found.'
+        : `No Claude transcript JSONL files found under ${payload.source.transcriptRoot}.`,
     ];
     if (skippedLines.length > 0) {
       lines.push('Skipped transcript errors:');
diff --git a/tests/scripts/loop-status.test.js b/tests/scripts/loop-status.test.js
index 4da04a4c..82449d32 100644
--- a/tests/scripts/loop-status.test.js
+++ b/tests/scripts/loop-status.test.js
@@ -313,6 +313,17 @@ function runTests() {
     assert.strictEqual(payload.errors[0].transcriptPath, missingTranscript);
   })) passed++; else failed++;
 
+  if (test('text output distinguishes explicit transcript read failures from empty discovery', () => {
+    const missingTranscript = path.join(os.tmpdir(), `missing-loop-status-text-${Date.now()}.jsonl`);
+
+    const result = run(['--transcript', missingTranscript, '--now', NOW]);
+
+    assert.strictEqual(result.code, 0, result.stderr);
+    assert.match(result.stdout, /No readable Claude transcript JSONL files were found/);
+    assert.match(result.stdout, /Skipped transcript errors/);
+    assert.ok(!result.stdout.includes('No Claude transcript JSONL files found under'));
+  })) passed++; else failed++;
+
   if (test('continues when one transcript directory cannot be read', () => {
     const homeDir = createTempHome();
     const blockedDir = path.join(homeDir, '.claude', 'projects', '-blocked-project');