chenhg5/cc-connect · error

geminiSession: start: %w

Error message

geminiSession: start: %w

What it means

After wiring stdin/stdout/stderr, Send calls cmd.Start() to launch the gemini CLI; failure is wrapped as `geminiSession: start: %w`. Unlike New()'s LookPath check, this fires when the binary was found but could not actually be executed.

Source

Thrown at agent/gemini/session.go:194

	cmd.WaitDelay = 1 * time.Second
	cmd.Dir = gs.workDir
	env := os.Environ()
	if len(gs.extraEnv) > 0 {
		env = core.MergeEnv(env, gs.extraEnv)
	}
	cmd.Env = env
	cmd.Stdin = strings.NewReader(fullPrompt)

	stdout, err := cmd.StdoutPipe()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("geminiSession: stdout pipe: %w", err)
	}

	var stderrBuf bytes.Buffer
	cmd.Stderr = &stderrBuf

	if err := cmd.Start(); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("geminiSession: start: %w", err)
	}

	started = true
	gs.wg.Add(1)
	go func() {
		defer cancel()
		gs.readLoop(ctx, cmd, stdout, &stderrBuf, append(imageRefs, fileRefs...))
	}()

	return nil
}

func (gs *geminiSession) readLoop(ctx context.Context, cmd *exec.Cmd, stdout io.ReadCloser, stderrBuf *bytes.Buffer, tempImages []string) {
	defer gs.wg.Done()
	defer func() {
		// Clean up temp image files
		for _, f := range tempImages {
			os.Remove(f)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

1. Run the wrapped inner error down: test `gemini --version` as the same user
2. Reinstall the CLI (`npm i -g @google/gemini-cli`) if the binary is corrupt or arch-mismatched
3. Fix shebang/interpreter issues (ensure `node` is on PATH for the shim script)
4. Check mount flags (noexec) and process/fork limits if the errno is EACCES/EAGAIN

Example fix

// before
$ file $(which gemini)
gemini: ELF 64-bit ... (aarch64)   # on x86_64 host
// after
$ npm i -g @google/gemini-cli
$ gemini --version

// deeper than LookPath: verify the binary actually executes
out, err := exec.Command("gemini", "--version").CombinedOutput()
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("gemini CLI broken (%v): %s", err, out) }

if err := sess.Send(prompt, id, nil, nil); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "start:") {
  var ee *exec.Error
  if errors.As(err, &ee) { log.Printf("exec failed for %q: %v", ee.Name, ee.Err) }
}

When it happens

Trigger: cmd.Start() returns an error: binary removed from PATH after construction, exec format error (wrong architecture/corrupt install), missing interpreter shebang, noexec mount, or fork/exec resource limits.

Common situations: nvm/version-manager switched node versions so the gemini shim is broken; npm global update replaced the binary mid-flight; binary installed for another OS/arch; /usr mounted noexec; EAGAIN from fork limits under heavy load.

Related errors

• antigravitySession: start: %w
• %s
• codex app-server exited: %w
• copilot probe: start: %w
• copilotSession: stdin pipe: %w

AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d12c9cdabaa72faf. Report an issue: GitHub.