gastownhall/beads · error

custom_types: %w

Error message

custom_types: %w

What it means

Wrapper from needsBackfilledCustomStatusesCustomTypes when the probe needsCustomTypesBackfill fails. This probe runs as part of migrationWorkNeeded (MigrateUp's work-detection gate) and simply runs SELECT COUNT(*) FROM custom_types plus a config lookup; any SQL error here is wrapped so the caller knows migration gating itself couldn't be evaluated.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/schema/backfill.go:29

	"github.com/steveyegge/beads/internal/types"
)

func ensureBackfilledCustomStatusesCustomTypes(ctx context.Context, db DBConn) (bool, error) {
	typesWrote, err := backfillCustomTypes(ctx, db)
	if err != nil {
		return typesWrote, fmt.Errorf("backfill custom_types: %w", err)
	}
	statusesWrote, err := backfillCustomStatuses(ctx, db)
	if err != nil {
		return typesWrote || statusesWrote, fmt.Errorf("backfill custom_statuses: %w", err)
	}
	return typesWrote || statusesWrote, nil
}

func needsBackfilledCustomStatusesCustomTypes(ctx context.Context, db DBConn) (bool, error) {
	typesNeed, err := needsCustomTypesBackfill(ctx, db)
	if err != nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("custom_types: %w", err)
	}
	statusesNeed, err := needsCustomStatusesBackfill(ctx, db)
	if err != nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("custom_statuses: %w", err)
	}
	return typesNeed || statusesNeed, nil
}

func needsCustomTypesBackfill(ctx context.Context, db DBConn) (bool, error) {
	var count int
	if err := db.QueryRowContext(ctx, "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM custom_types").Scan(&count); err != nil {
		return false, err
	}
	if count > 0 {
		return false, nil
	}

	var value string

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Let MigrateUp proceed and create the schema — on a fresh DB the missing table is expected; complete the migration flow.
2. Check Dolt server connectivity and retry opening the database.
3. Verify SELECT privileges on custom_types and config.
4. If the table should exist, run `bd doctor` schema checks or restore from backup.

// Check base tables exist before probing migration state
var n int
err := db.QueryRowContext(ctx, `SELECT COUNT(*) FROM information_schema.TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = DATABASE() AND TABLE_NAME IN ('custom_types','config')`).Scan(&n)
if err == nil && n < 2 {
	// fresh database: skip probes, go straight to MigrateUp
}

err := openAndMigrate(ctx)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "custom_types:") {
	if isMissingTableErr(err) || isTransient(err) {
		err = openAndMigrate(ctx) // full migration creates the missing table
	}
}

When it happens

Trigger: needsCustomTypesBackfill's SELECT COUNT(*) FROM custom_types or SELECT value FROM config WHERE key='types.custom' errors — usually because custom_types (or config) doesn't exist yet on a fresh or mid-upgrade database, or the connection/context failed.

Common situations: Fresh database probed before migrations created the tables; connection dropped during startup; restricted user lacking SELECT; Dolt server unavailable when `bd` opens the database.

Related errors

• custom_statuses: %w
• failed to migrate credential keys: %w
• failed to scan peer for migration: %w
• failed to iterate peers for migration: %w
• failed to update encrypted password for peer %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cd3c786fdfd9c8a8. Report an issue: GitHub.