diff --git a/packages/orchestration-service/src/chat/index.js b/packages/orchestration-service/src/chat/index.js
index e01d339..82986e9 100644
--- a/packages/orchestration-service/src/chat/index.js
+++ b/packages/orchestration-service/src/chat/index.js
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ async function chat(externalId, userMessage, options = {}) {
 
     // 2. Fetch recent episodes for context
     const recentEpisodes = await memory.getRecentEpisodes(session.id, RECENT_EPISODE_LIMIT );
+    const isFirstMessage = recentEpisodes.length === 0;
     const recentIds = new Set(recentEpisodes.map(e => e.id));
 
     // 3. Semantic Search
@@ -125,11 +126,12 @@ async function chat(externalId, userMessage, options = {}) {
 }
 
 async function chatStream(externalId, userMessage, onChunk, options = {}) {
-    console.log('[orchestration] chatStream called:', { externalId, userMessage: userMessage.slice(0, 50) });
+  console.log('[orchestration] chatStream called:', { externalId, userMessage: userMessage.slice(0, 50) });
   let session = await memory.getSessionByExternalId(externalId);
   if (!session) session = await memory.createSession(externalId);
 
   const recentEpisodes = await memory.getRecentEpisodes(session.id, RECENT_EPISODE_LIMIT);
+  const isFirstMessage = recentEpisodes.length === 0;
   const recentIds = new Set(recentEpisodes.map(e => e.id));
   const semanticEpisodes = await getSemanticEpisodes(userMessage, session.id, recentIds);
 
@@ -176,7 +178,6 @@ async function chatStream(externalId, userMessage, onChunk, options = {}) {
         }
       } catch (err) {
         console.error('[orchestration] Failed to parse inference SSE event:', raw, err.message);
-        throw err;  // add this temporarily
       }
     }
   }