gastownhall/beads · error

check staged changes before commit: %w

Error message

check staged changes before commit: %w

What it means

After staging, StageAndCommit calls issueops.HasStagedChanges so DOLT_COMMIT('-m') isn't run against an empty staged set (which would emit a 'nothing to commit' warning); failures in that check are wrapped as 'check staged changes before commit: %w'. Like the pending-changes check, this is a query failure (connection/server issue), not a data problem.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/versioncontrolops/commit.go:88

	if !pending {
		return nil
	}

	for table := range dirtyTables {
		if _, err := conn.ExecContext(ctx, "CALL DOLT_ADD(?)", table); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("dolt add %s: %w", table, err)
		}
	}

	// Precise guard: HasPendingChanges above is global, but we only DOLT_ADD the
	// dirty-tracked tables. When those specific tables turn out clean (idempotent
	// no-op) while some UNRELATED table is concurrently dirty, the fast-path does
	// not fire yet staging stages nothing — so DOLT_COMMIT('-m') would still emit
	// the "nothing to commit" warning. Check the STAGED set (exactly what '-m'
	// will commit) and skip the empty commit.
	staged, err := issueops.HasStagedChanges(ctx, conn)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("check staged changes before commit: %w", err)
	}
	if !staged {
		return nil
	}
	if author == "" {
		_, err = conn.ExecContext(ctx, "CALL DOLT_COMMIT('-m', ?)", commitMsg)
	} else {
		_, err = conn.ExecContext(ctx, "CALL DOLT_COMMIT('-m', ?, '--author', ?)", commitMsg, author)
	}
	if err != nil && !issueops.IsNothingToCommitError(err) {
		return fmt.Errorf("dolt commit: %w", err)
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Reconnect and retry StageAndCommit (the operation is idempotent)
2. Inspect the wrapped driver error to distinguish connection failure from query/schema failure
3. Confirm the Dolt version supports the staging queries used by HasStagedChanges

Example fix

// before
err := versioncontrolops.StageAndCommit(ctx, db, tables, msg, author)
// after
err := versioncontrolops.StageAndCommit(ctx, db, tables, msg, author)
if err != nil && isConnectionError(err) {
    db = reconnect(ctx)
    err = versioncontrolops.StageAndCommit(ctx, db, tables, msg, author)
}

if err := conn.PingContext(ctx); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("connection unhealthy before staged check: %w", err)
}

err := versioncontrolops.StageAndCommit(ctx, conn, tables, msg, author)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "check staged changes before commit") {
    conn = reconnect(ctx)
    err = versioncontrolops.StageAndCommit(ctx, conn, tables, msg, author)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling StageAndCommit when the HasStagedChanges query fails — connection loss, Dolt server down, or dolt_status staging query unavailable/changed.

Common situations: Long-running process whose connection went stale; embedded Dolt process crash between DOLT_ADD and the staged check; Dolt version where the staged-changes query behaves differently.

Related errors

• check pending changes before commit: %w
• dolt add %s: %w
• failed to stage is_blocked repairs: %w
• failed to stage %s before commit: %w
• dolt commit: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0d369300df552374. Report an issue: GitHub.