deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness · error · Error

background job limit reached for this owner (limit: ${this.m

Error message

background job limit reached for this owner (limit: ${this.maxConcurrentJobsPerOwner}); use job_kill to stop an unneeded job, wait for it to finish, then retry

What it means

Error "background job limit reached for this owner (limit: ${this.maxConcurrentJobsPerOwner}); use job_kill to stop an unneeded job, wait for it to finish, then retry" thrown in deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness.

Source

Thrown at packages/jobs/jobs-local/src/index.ts:145

    this.selfCtx = ctx
    ctx.effect(() => () => this.disposeAll(), 'jobs teardown')
  }

  start(spec: JobStart): JobId {
    if (!this.servesOwner(spec.owner)) {
      throw new Error('background jobs unavailable: no job controller serves this agent (load @deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-jobs in its composition)')
    }
    if (spec.kind.length === 0) throw new Error('invalid job kind: expected a non-empty string')
    if (spec.label.length === 0) throw new Error('invalid job label: expected a non-empty string')
    if (spec.outputLimitBytes !== undefined
      && (!Number.isSafeInteger(spec.outputLimitBytes) || spec.outputLimitBytes <= 0)) {
      throw new Error(`invalid outputLimitBytes: expected a positive safe integer, got ${JSON.stringify(spec.outputLimitBytes)}`)
    }
    if (spec.owner !== undefined) this.ensureOwnerCleanup(spec.owner)

    const active = this.activeTaskCount(spec.owner)
    if (active >= this.maxConcurrentJobsPerOwner) {
      throw new Error(
        `background job limit reached for this owner (limit: ${this.maxConcurrentJobsPerOwner}); use job_kill to stop an unneeded job, wait for it to finish, then retry`,
      )
    }

    const hooks = spec.run()
    const count = (this.counters.get(spec.kind) ?? 0) + 1
    this.counters.set(spec.kind, count)
    const id = JobId(`${spec.kind}-${count}`)

    let markSettled!: () => void
    const settled = new Promise<void>((resolve) => { markSettled = resolve })
    const job: TrackedTask = {
      id,
      kind: spec.kind,
      label: spec.label,
      outputLimitBytes: spec.outputLimitBytes,
      owner: spec.owner,
      cancel: hooks.cancel.bind(hooks),

View on GitHub (pinned to b150a551b8)

Solutions

1. Stop an unneeded job with job_kill or wait for a running job to finish, then retry.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/jobs/jobs-local/src/index.ts:145 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness@b150a551b8 (2026-08-24). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a09e36a24aef71c7. Report an issue: GitHub.