deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness · error · Error

Ralph workflow returned an unknown terminal status

Error message

Ralph workflow returned an unknown terminal status

What it means

Error "Ralph workflow returned an unknown terminal status" thrown in deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness.

Source

Thrown at packages/workflow/tool-ralph/src/index.ts:331

        throw new Error('Ralph workflow returned a malformed terminal result')
      }
      if (roundsStarted === 1) {
        if (value['lastReport'] !== null) {
          throw new Error('Ralph workflow returned an invalid first-round failure')
        }
        return { status: 'round-failed', roundsStarted }
      }
      if (value['lastReport'] === null) {
        throw new Error('Ralph workflow returned a round failure without its last handoff')
      }
      return {
        status: 'round-failed',
        roundsStarted,
        lastReport: readReport(value['lastReport'], 'continue', maxHandoffChars),
      }
    }
    default:
      throw new Error('Ralph workflow returned an unknown terminal status')
  }
}

/** A non-clean workflow finish is an error, never a partial Ralph success. */
function stopReasonError(result: WorkflowResult): string | undefined {
  switch (result.stopReason) {
    case 'completed':
      return undefined
    case 'cancelled':
      return `Ralph workflow was cancelled${result.error === undefined ? '' : ` (${result.error})`}`
    case 'error':
      return `Ralph workflow failed: ${result.error ?? 'unknown error'}`
    /* v8 ignore start -- WorkflowStopReason is closed; a future variant must fail loud here. */
    default:
      return `Ralph workflow ended abnormally (${String(result.stopReason satisfies never)})`
    /* v8 ignore stop */
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to b150a551b8)

Solutions

1. Return one of the known terminal statuses from the Ralph workflow; add handling for the returned status if a new one was introduced.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/workflow/tool-ralph/src/index.ts:331 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/720b60a84d8a40b3. Report an issue: GitHub.