coleam00/Archon · error · Error

Cannot actively cancel run with status '${current.status}'.

Error message

Cannot actively cancel run with status '${current.status}'. Only a running detached CLI run has live work to stop.

What it means

The active-cancel operation only stops live detached CLI work, so it refuses runs whose status is not `running`. A run in `completed`, `failed`, `cancelled`, `paused`, etc. has no live process to stop; the run state is left untouched.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/commands/workflow.ts:4395

 * tree, then record `cancelled`. An unreachable owner never falls back to a DB-only
 * transition — operators use `abandon` separately after verifying an orphan.
 */
export async function workflowCancelCommand(
  runId: string,
  json?: boolean,
  cwd?: string
): Promise<void> {
  const cancel = async (): Promise<{
    resolvedId: string;
    workflowName: string;
    cascadeFailures: number;
    blockedParentRunId: string | null;
  }> => {
    const resolvedId = await resolveRunIdArg(runId, cwd);
    const current = await workflowDb.getWorkflowRun(resolvedId);
    if (!current) throw new Error(`Workflow run not found: ${resolvedId}`);
    if (current.status !== 'running') {
      throw new Error(
        `Cannot actively cancel run with status '${current.status}'. Only a running detached CLI run has live work to stop.`
      );
    }

    let containerEnvId: string | undefined;
    if (current.metadata?.isolation === 'container') {
      const isolationEnvId = current.metadata.isolation_env_id;
      if (typeof isolationEnvId !== 'string' || isolationEnvId.trim().length === 0) {
        throw new Error(
          `Cannot confirm the isolation container owned by run ${resolvedId}. ` +
            'The run was not changed; its container tracking ID is missing.'
        );
      }
      containerEnvId = isolationEnvId;
      const containerEnv = await isolationDb.getById(containerEnvId);
      if (containerEnv?.provider !== 'container') {
        throw new Error(
          `Cannot confirm the isolation container owned by run ${resolvedId}. ` +

View on GitHub (pinned to 0773b97458)

Solutions

1. Check the run's current status (`archon workflow status <id>`); if it is finished/cancelled, no action is needed
2. For a gated/paused run use the appropriate command (`approve`/`reject`) instead of cancel
3. Only actively cancel runs that show `running` with a live detached owner process

Example fix

// before
await cancelWorkflow(runId);
// after
const run = await getWorkflowRun(runId);
if (run.status === 'running') await cancelWorkflow(runId);
else console.log(`run is ${run.status}; nothing to cancel`);

const run = await workflowDb.getWorkflowRun(id);
if (run?.status !== 'running') {
  console.log(`run is ${run?.status}; only running detached runs can be actively cancelled`);
  return;
}
await cancelWorkflow(id);

const isRunning = (r: { status: string }): boolean => r.status === 'running';

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `archon workflow cancel <id>` on a run whose `status !== 'running'` — e.g. cancelling an already-finished or already-cancelled run, or a paused/gated run.

Common situations: Double-cancelling after a prior cancel succeeded; trying to cancel a run that already completed while you read an old status; attempting to use cancel on a waiting-on-gate run that needs `approve`/`reject` instead.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid state transition" errors: "status must be X, actually Y", "already rejected/charging/uninstalled", "cannot ... while running" — what they mean when a library rejects your call — this error's family across 31 libraries.

Related errors

• Workflow run not found: ${resolvedId}
• Cannot confirm the isolation container owned by run ${resolv
• Cannot confirm the isolation container owned by run ${resolv
• Detached owner process stopped, but the isolation container
• Detached work stopped, but cancellation did not win the run

AI-assisted analysis of coleam00/Archon@0773b97458 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5d9673bf4e2d3170. Report an issue: GitHub.