There are steps when tracked files stay the same:

$ pijul init p1
$ cd p1
$ touch a
$ pijul add a
$ pijul record -am"."
Hash: UIFNDYTRWN6VDPXTTVYBQPTNN6IX7VPB5XY6A26WJ2ORTWEU2E2AC
$ pijul unrec UI
$ pijul ls
a
$

I found a combination when tracked files removed while unrecording:

$ cd
$ rm -rf p1
$ pijul init p1
$ cd p1
$ touch a
$ pijul add a
Hash: FFWESRX54JZ2IZM5LUIC5VPZFLLZCJFP2O74YLLKF2IFBWFP3VAAC
$ pijul unrecord --reset --show-changes 100
# save and exit from $EDITOR
$ pijul log
# empty
$ pijul ls
# empty
$ 

Please fix if required.

What are you showing in the first series of commands? It looks correct to me.

The second series of commands seems to have a command missing, something to generate a hash.