Cannot resume run with status '${run.status}'. Only failed o

Error message

Cannot resume run with status '${run.status}'. Only failed or paused runs can be resumed.

What it means

resumeWorkflow validates that a run can be resumed before executing it. Only 'failed' and 'paused' runs are in RESUMABLE_WORKFLOW_STATUSES; any other status (running, completed, cancelled, etc.) has no execution point to resume from, so the library throws rather than corrupting run state.

Source

Thrown at packages/core/src/operations/workflow-operations.ts:398

/**
 * List all running and paused workflow runs.
 */
export async function getWorkflowStatus(): Promise<WorkflowStatusData> {
  const runs = await workflowDb.listWorkflowRuns({
    status: ['running', 'paused'],
    limit: 50,
  });
  return { runs };
}

/**
 * Validate that a run can be resumed and return it.
 * Does NOT execute the workflow — callers decide whether to run.
 */
export async function resumeWorkflow(runId: string): Promise<WorkflowRun> {
  const run = await getRunOrThrow(runId, 'operations.workflow_resume_lookup_failed');
  if (!RESUMABLE_WORKFLOW_STATUSES.includes(run.status)) {
    throw new Error(
      `Cannot resume run with status '${run.status}'. Only failed or paused runs can be resumed.`
    );
  }
  return run;
}

export interface AbandonWorkflowResult {
  run: WorkflowRun;
  /** Whether this call won the state transition to `cancelled`. */
  cancelled: boolean;
  /**
   * Number of sub-run descendants the cascade failed to cancel (best-effort walk;
   * failures are also logged). Non-zero means part of the tree may still be alive.
   */
  cascadeFailures: number;
  /**
   * When the abandoned run was itself a `workflow:` sub-run and its parent is
   * paused blocked on it: the parent's run id. Nothing auto-resumes that parent

View on GitHub (pinned to 0773b97458)

Solutions

Check the run's status first and only call resumeWorkflow when status is 'failed' or 'paused'.
If the run already completed, start a new run instead of resuming.
If the run is currently 'running', wait for it to finish; use cancel/abandon if it must stop.
A cancelled run is terminal — start a fresh run rather than resuming.

Example fix

// before
await resumeWorkflow(runId);
// after
const run = await getRunOrThrow(runId);
if (run.status === 'failed' || run.status === 'paused') {
  await resumeWorkflow(runId);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const RESUMABLE = ['failed', 'paused'];
const run = await getRun(runId);
if (!RESUMABLE.includes(run.status)) throw new Error(`Run ${runId} (${run.status}) is not resumable`);

Type guard

function isResumable(run: WorkflowRun): boolean {
  return run.status === 'failed' || run.status === 'paused';
}

Try / catch

try { await resumeWorkflow(runId); }
catch (e) {
  if ((e as Error).message.startsWith("Cannot resume run with status")) {
    console.warn(`Not resumable: ${(e as Error).message}`);
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Check status right before resuming; refresh stale run listings.
Start new runs for completed/cancelled work instead of resuming.
Guard automation retry loops with a resumable-status predicate.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling resumeWorkflow (directly or via the 'run'/'resumed' commands) with a run ID whose status is 'running', 'completed', or 'cancelled'.

Common situations: Resuming an already-completed run from a stale task list; attempting to kick a run that is currently executing; retrying a resume command that already succeeded; a cancelled run referenced by an old automation script.

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

AI-assisted analysis of coleam00/Archon@0773b97458 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bae7990b998d0f1a. Report an issue: GitHub.