cloud agent created but its labels could not be applied

Error message

cloud agent created but its labels could not be applied ({}); the sandbox was torn down — retry the job.

What it means

The sandbox was created successfully but applying its job labels failed, so the library deleted the sandbox and aborts the dispatch with an instruction to retry. The wrapped message carries the sanitized original label error.

Solutions

Retry the job as the message advises — the failure was rolled back cleanly
If it repeats, check the label API key/permissions and Daytona service status
Reduce parallel dispatch volume if hitting 429

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

match dispatch(job) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("torn down — retry") => retry_with_backoff(job),
    other => other,
}

Prevention

Retry transient provisioning failures automatically with backoff
Check Daytona status before bulk dispatches
Avoid dispatching with soon-to-expire credentials

When it happens

Trigger: `put_sandbox_labels` fails (any non-success status from the labels endpoint) after create succeeded, and the subsequent DELETE returns success or 404, so rollback completed.

Common situations: Transient Daytona label-endpoint failure or rate limit right after create; expired credentials mid-provisioning; sandbox reaped between create and label.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9b68e943763be98e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/cloud_dispatch.rs:1566

        // fails truthfully — no orphan, retryable — rather than returning
        // a receipt the reconciler can never find again.
        if let Err(label_error) = Self::put_sandbox_labels(&sandbox_id, &api_key, job) {
            let undo = Self::send_json(
                reqwest::Method::DELETE,
                &Self::control_plane_url(&format!("sandbox/{sandbox_id}"))?,
                &api_key,
                serde_json::Value::Null,
            )
            .and_then(|response| {
                let status = response.status();
                if status.is_success() || status.as_u16() == 404 {
                    Ok(())
                } else {
                    bail!("HTTP {status}")
                }
            });
            match undo {
                Ok(()) => bail!(
                    "cloud agent created but its labels could not be applied ({}); \
                     the sandbox was torn down — retry the job.",
                    sanitize_error(&label_error.to_string())
                ),
                Err(undo_error) => bail!(
                    "cloud agent {sandbox_id} was created but its labels could not be \
                     applied ({}) and teardown also failed ({}); the sandbox needs \
                     manual cleanup at the provider.",
                    sanitize_error(&label_error.to_string()),
                    sanitize_error(&undo_error.to_string())
                ),
            }
        }
        Ok(SandboxReceipt {
            sandbox_id,
            toolbox_url,
        })
    }

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