coleam00/Archon · error · Error

Cannot supersede: no workflow run '${runId}' exists.

Error message

Cannot supersede: no workflow run '${runId}' exists.

What it means

resolveSupersededRun() resolves the run named by a supersede option (--supersede) before starting a new run. getWorkflowRun returned null, meaning no workflow run with that id exists in the database, so the CLI refuses. Both the --detach pre-flight and the provenance-recording path share this owner (#2872).

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/commands/workflow.ts:739

function buildResumeLookupFailureError(error: Error): Error {
  return new Error(
    'Cannot resume: Database lookup failed.\n' +
      `Error: ${error.message}\n` +
      'Hint: Check your database connection before using --resume.'
  );
}

/**
 * Validate a `--supersedes` declaration (#2747): the run must exist and be terminal.
 * Supersede inherits nothing, so existence and terminality are the whole contract.
 *
 * One owner for the refusals because two callers need them: the `--detach` pre-flight,
 * which refuses before forking (#2872), and the run path that records the provenance.
 */
async function resolveSupersededRun(runId: string): Promise<WorkflowRun> {
  const superseded = await workflowDb.getWorkflowRun(runId);
  if (!superseded) {
    throw new Error(`Cannot supersede: no workflow run '${runId}' exists.`);
  }
  if (!TERMINAL_WORKFLOW_STATUSES.includes(superseded.status)) {
    throw new Error(`Cannot supersede run '${superseded.id}': it is still ${superseded.status}.`);
  }
  return superseded;
}

/**
 * The acting CLI user's Archon id, or undefined when `ARCHON_USER_ID`/`$USER` is unset
 * or the identity cannot be resolved. Attribution is best-effort by design — a run must
 * not fail because the user table could not be reached.
 */
async function resolveCliUserRecordId(): Promise<string | undefined> {
  const cliId = resolveCliUserId();
  if (!cliId) return undefined;
  try {
    const cliUser = await userDb.findOrCreateUserByPlatformIdentity('cli', cliId, cliId);
    return cliUser.id;

View on GitHub (pinned to 0773b97458)

Solutions

  1. List existing runs (`archon runs` / `archon workflow list`) and copy the exact run id.
  2. Confirm you are pointed at the same database the original run used.
  3. If you only want to start a new run, drop the --supersede flag instead.

Example fix

// before (truncated id)
$ archon workflow run foo --supersede wf_a1b2
Error: Cannot supersede: no workflow run 'wf_a1b2' exists.
// after (full id from `archon workflow list`)
$ archon workflow run foo --supersede wf_a1b2c3d4e5f6
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// check the id exists before passing --supersede
import { workflowDb } from '@archon/core';
const run = await workflowDb.getWorkflowRun(runId);
if (!run) throw new Error(`--supersede id not found: ${runId}`);

Try / catch

try {
  await runWorkflow(name, { supersede: runId });
} catch (e) {
  if (String((e as Error).message).includes('no workflow run')) {
    console.error(`Run id ${runId} not found; list runs and copy the exact id.`);
  }
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --supersede <runId> where runId is a typo, belongs to a different install/database, references a run that was deleted, or is an id from another id space (e.g. a session or task id instead of a workflow run id).

Common situations: Copy-paste truncating the run id; switching databases (dev vs production) so the id is unknown; trying to supersede a run on another machine's install; using an old id after the DB was reset.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of coleam00/Archon@0773b97458 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/36704fd8557994b5. Report an issue: GitHub.