astrid-runtime/astrid · error

group '{group_name}' has no capsules

Error message

group '{group_name}' has no capsules

What it means

In headless (non-interactive) capsule selection, after filtering a group's capsules for `default: true`, the code needs a fallback first capsule. If the group contains no capsules at all, both defaults and the first-item fallback are unavailable, so this error is thrown naming the empty group.

Source

Thrown at crates/astrid-cli/src/commands/init.rs:431

    // fallback; iterate groups in sorted order for stable warnings.
    let mut groups: HashMap<String, Vec<DistroCapsule>> = HashMap::new();
    for cap in capsules {
        match &cap.group {
            None => selected.push(cap),
            Some(group) => groups.entry(group.clone()).or_default().push(cap),
        }
    }

    let mut group_names: Vec<String> = groups.keys().cloned().collect();
    group_names.sort_unstable();
    for group_name in group_names {
        let group_caps = groups.remove(&group_name).unwrap_or_default();
        let defaults: Vec<DistroCapsule> =
            group_caps.iter().filter(|c| c.default).cloned().collect();
        if defaults.is_empty() {
            let first = group_caps
                .first()
                .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("group '{group_name}' has no capsules"))?;
            eprintln!(
                "{}",
                Theme::warning(&format!(
                    "group '{group_name}' has no default capsule — selecting first: {}",
                    first.name
                ))
            );
            selected.push(first.clone());
        } else {
            selected.extend(defaults);
        }
    }

    Ok(selected)
}

/// Prompt for distro-level variables needed by the selected capsules.
/// Only prompts for variables that are actually referenced by a selected capsule's env.

View on GitHub (pinned to affd8760f4)

Solutions

  1. Check the group name spelling against the available groups listed by init
  2. Update the group name to one that exists in the current distribution manifest
  3. If authoring the manifest, add capsules to the group
  4. Make the error list valid group names to speed up diagnosis

Example fix

// before
.ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("group '{group_name}' has no capsules"))?;
// after
.ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!(
    "group '{group_name}' has no capsules (known groups: {}) — check --group spelling",
    groups.keys().cloned().collect::<Vec<_>>().join(", ")
))?;
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// preflight: confirm the group exists and is non-empty before headless init
let group_ok = manifest.groups.iter()
    .any(|g| g.name == requested_group && !g.capsules.is_empty());
if !group_ok {
    bail!("group '{}' missing or empty; available: {:?}", requested_group,
          manifest.groups.iter().map(|g| &g.name).collect::<Vec<_>>());
}

Try / catch

match select_capsules(&groups, &group_name, /*headless=*/ true) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("has no capsules") => {
        eprintln!("{e}; falling back to default group");
        select_capsules(&groups, DEFAULT_GROUP, true)?
    }
    other => other?,
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running `astrid init` in headless mode (e.g. in CI) where the requested --group names a group with zero capsules in the distribution manifest, or where group name resolution produced an empty bucket.

Common situations: Typo in the group name (a group key doesn't exist, so remove(&group_name).unwrap_or_default() silently yields an empty vec); distribution manifest updated and the group was removed or renamed; CI scripts pinned to stale group names.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of astrid-runtime/astrid@affd8760f4 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4d5dc190e017a982. Report an issue: GitHub.