What causes "clear repo mtime: %w" in gastownhall/beads?

Apply pending schema migrations so repo_mtimes exists.

clear repo mtime: %w

Error message

clear repo mtime: %w

What it means

ClearRepoMtimeInTx deletes the repo_mtimes row matching the expanded, absolute repo path and wraps any SQL failure with "clear repo mtime: %w". It is used to invalidate the jsonl mtime cache so the next sync re-reads the file. The error indicates the DELETE statement itself failed inside the transaction.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/issueops/bulk_ops.go:447

		VALUES (?, ?, ?, NOW())
		ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE
			jsonl_path = VALUES(jsonl_path),
			mtime_ns = VALUES(mtime_ns),
			last_checked = NOW()
	`, repoPath, jsonlPath, mtimeNs)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("set repo mtime: %w", err)
	}
	return nil
}

// ClearRepoMtimeInTx removes the mtime cache entry for a repo path.
func ClearRepoMtimeInTx(ctx context.Context, tx *sql.Tx, repoPath string) error {
	// Expand ~ and resolve to absolute path to match stored format.
	absPath := expandAndAbsPath(repoPath)
	_, err := tx.ExecContext(ctx, `DELETE FROM repo_mtimes WHERE repo_path = ?`, absPath)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("clear repo mtime: %w", err)
	}
	return nil
}

func expandAndAbsPath(p string) string {
	if strings.HasPrefix(p, "~") {
		home, err := os.UserHomeDir()
		if err == nil {
			if p == "~" {
				p = home
			} else {
				p = filepath.Join(home, p[2:])
			}
		}
	}
	abs, err := filepath.Abs(p)
	if err != nil {
		return p

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Apply pending schema migrations so repo_mtimes exists.
Roll back and retry the whole transaction; a DELETE can fail from a poisoned transaction.
Check the wrapped error for 'lock wait timeout' and look for competing bd processes holding locks.
Ensure the context passed in is not already cancelled/deadlined before the cleanup call.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if ctx.Err() != nil { return ctx.Err() }

Try / catch

if err := issueops.ClearRepoMtimeInTx(ctx, tx, repoPath); err != nil {
    tx.Rollback()
    return fmt.Errorf("cache invalidation failed: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Roll back transactions immediately when any statement fails.
Run migrations after upgrading bd before running sync.
Check for concurrent bd processes before long cleanup transactions.
Always pass the same repoPath format (absolute) used when setting the entry.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ClearRepoMtimeInTx when: the repo_mtimes table is missing (unmigrated schema), the transaction was aborted by a prior error, the context was cancelled, or the DB connection dropped before/during the DELETE.

Common situations: Stale-schema databases after upgrading bd; callers that ignore an earlier failed statement and keep using the aborted transaction; cancellation during an import that tries to clean up cache entries; network blips to a remote Dolt server.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8ce1bbec275dc31f. Report an issue: GitHub.