What causes "failed to create app workspace: %w" in charmbracelet/crush?

Inspect the wrapped inner error from app.New and fix that specific cause (agents, providers, migrations)

failed to create app workspace: %w

Error message

failed to create app workspace: %w

What it means

Once DB and config are ready, CreateWorkspace assembles the full app workspace via app.New(ctx, conn, cfg, skillsMgr). Any failure wiring services (agents, LSP, permissions, skills) is wrapped with this message and the workspace is not registered.

Source

Thrown at internal/backend/backend.go:445

	if err != nil {
		return nil, proto.Workspace{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to connect to database: %w", err)
	}

	// Discover skills once per workspace, before app.New. The backend
	// hosts multiple workspaces concurrently, so the manager is
	// constructed WITHOUT WithGlobalMirror to prevent last-writer-wins
	// cross-talk between workspaces.
	discoveryCfg := skillsDiscoveryConfig(cfg)
	allSkills, activeSkills, skillStates := skills.DiscoverFromConfig(discoveryCfg)
	skillsMgr := skills.NewManager(
		allSkills, activeSkills, skillStates,
		skills.WithResolvedPaths(discoveryCfg.ResolvePaths()),
		skills.WithWorkingDir(discoveryCfg.WorkingDir),
	)

	appWorkspace, err := app.New(b.ctx, conn, cfg, skillsMgr)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, proto.Workspace{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to create app workspace: %w", err)
	}

	wsCtx, wsCancel := context.WithCancel(b.ctx)
	ws := &Workspace{
		App:          appWorkspace,
		ID:           id,
		Path:         args.Path,
		Cfg:          cfg,
		Env:          args.Env,
		Skills:       skillsMgr,
		resolvedPath: key,
		ctx:          wsCtx,
		cancel:       wsCancel,
		clients:      make(map[string]*clientState),
	}

	b.mu.Lock()
	// Re-check admission: the client may have retired while the slow

View on GitHub (pinned to 7944b8e522)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped inner error from app.New and fix that specific cause (agents, providers, migrations)
Run interactively once to generate valid agent config
Delete/reinitialize the workspace data directory if migrations are broken

Example fix

// before
crush run  # failed to create app workspace: coder agent configuration is missing
// after
# add agent coder block to crushrc, then
crush run

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

ws, err := b.CreateWorkspace(ctx, args)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to create app workspace") {
    return fmt.Errorf("workspace bootstrap failed: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Keep agent/provider config valid — test with a plain 'crush' launch after edits
Don't hand-edit DB schema; rely on migrations
Watch the wrapped inner error; fix the specific failing subsystem

When it happens

Trigger: app.New returns an error — e.g. agent configuration missing, provider resolution failure, skills manager setup error, or DB migration failure during app bootstrapping.

Common situations: Invalid agent/provider config that passes config.Init but fails at app wiring; broken skill directory setup; schema migration failure on an old database.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of charmbracelet/crush@7944b8e522 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2e481889d8babff0. Report an issue: GitHub.