diff --git a/letta/schemas/block.py b/letta/schemas/block.py
index 8af2f47c5b..f8bfabadc5 100644
--- a/letta/schemas/block.py
+++ b/letta/schemas/block.py
@@ -39,11 +39,18 @@ def verify_char_limit(self) -> Self:
             raise e
         return self
 
-    @model_validator(mode="after")
-    def ensure_label(self) -> Self:
-        if not self.label:
-            self.label = self.name
-        return self
+    # @model_validator
+    # def ensure_label(self) -> Self:
+    # if not self.label:
+    # self.label = self.name
+    # return self
+
+    @model_validator(mode="before")
+    def set_label_to_name_if_none(cls, values):
+        """Sets label to name if label is None"""
+        if values.get("label") is None and values.get("name") is not None:
+            values["label"] = values["name"]
+        return values
 
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.value)
diff --git a/letta/server/server.py b/letta/server/server.py
index b37ec867d4..fc52ebe8b6 100644
--- a/letta/server/server.py
+++ b/letta/server/server.py
@@ -261,6 +261,9 @@ def __init__(
         # add global default tools (for admin)
         self.add_default_tools(module_name="base")
 
+        # create default user  / blocks
+        self.get_default_user()
+
         # collect providers (always has Letta as a default)
         self._enabled_providers: List[Provider] = [LettaProvider()]
         if model_settings.openai_api_key:
diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index ae52f96686..1ed30630e3 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -7908,6 +7908,25 @@ MarkupSafe = ">=2.1.1"
 [package.extras]
 watchdog = ["watchdog (>=2.3)"]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "whyhow"
+version = "0.1.7"
+description = "Whyhow automated KG SDK"
+optional = false
+python-versions = ">=3.10"
+files = [
+    {file = "whyhow-0.1.7-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:e85c6b24a4c55a3b26aa38cb1513e354081c99be81483cfd59ae3981a5ceb492"},
+    {file = "whyhow-0.1.7.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:2ae6c51a43980a54456372d0d7e2987fa3e8bb044f5f422c841a9bd1c7177fe4"},
+]
+
+[package.dependencies]
+httpx = "*"
+pydantic = ">1"
+
+[package.extras]
+dev = ["bandit[toml]", "black", "datamodel-code-generator", "flake8", "flake8-docstrings", "fpdf", "isort", "mypy", "pydocstyle[toml]", "pytest", "pytest-asyncio", "pytest-cov", "pytest-httpx"]
+docs = ["markdown-callouts", "markdown-exec", "mkdocs", "mkdocs-jupyter", "mkdocs-material", "mkdocstrings[python]", "pymdown-extensions"]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "wikipedia"
 version = "1.4.0"
@@ -8354,4 +8373,4 @@ tests = ["wikipedia"]
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.0"
 python-versions = "<3.13,>=3.10"
-content-hash = "aa0bbf5825741bdc9c06388e7e27c1d9a2d85d517abb7f51cca71cc8349d1170"
+content-hash = "8df5d19e36e08c24ed40e4c1b887198723ea61db9e5d5184384044f82b168e4f"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 38114897ad..fb545a20ec 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ langchain = {version = "^0.2.16", optional = true}
 langchain-community = {version = "^0.2.17", optional = true}
 composio-langchain = "^0.5.28"
 composio-core = "^0.5.28"
+whyhow = "^0.1.7"
 
 [tool.poetry.extras]
 #local = ["llama-index-embeddings-huggingface"]
diff --git a/tests/test_client.py b/tests/test_client.py
index 58c7775ec6..bdb86a1339 100644
--- a/tests/test_client.py
+++ b/tests/test_client.py
@@ -385,7 +385,7 @@ def test_sources(client: Union[LocalClient, RESTClient], agent: AgentState):
     # list archival memory
     archival_memories = client.get_archival_memory(agent_id=agent.id)
     # print(archival_memories)
-    assert len(archival_memories) == created_passages
+    assert len(archival_memories) == created_passages, f"Mismatch length: {len(archival_memories)} vs. {created_passages}"
 
     # check number of passages
     sources = client.list_sources()