What causes "db: Exists: id must not be empty" in gastownhall/beads?

Ensure the caller populates the id (e.g. from an existing issue) before calling Exists

db: Exists: id must not be empty

Error message

db: Exists: id must not be empty

What it means

Exists() validates its issue id before querying the issues table. Because an empty id can never match a row, the repository refuses the query instead of silently returning false, so a caller bug (uninitialized or lost id) surfaces as an explicit error rather than a misleading result.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/domain/db/issue.go:605

	defer rows.Close()

	var out []*types.Issue
	for rows.Next() {
		issue, err := scanIssue(rows)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("db: GetByIDs: scan: %w", err)
		}
		out = append(out, issue)
	}
	if err := rows.Err(); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("db: GetByIDs: rows: %w", err)
	}
	return out, nil
}

func (r *issueSQLRepositoryImpl) Exists(ctx context.Context, id string, opts domain.IssueTableOpts) (bool, error) {
	if id == "" {
		return false, errors.New("db: Exists: id must not be empty")
	}
	table := pickIssueTable(opts.UseWispsTable)
	//nolint:gosec // G201: table is one of two hardcoded constants
	row := r.runner.QueryRowContext(ctx, fmt.Sprintf("SELECT 1 FROM %s WHERE id = ? LIMIT 1", table), id)
	var one int
	err := row.Scan(&one)
	if errors.Is(err, sql.ErrNoRows) {
		return false, nil
	}
	if err != nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("db: Exists %s: %w", id, err)
	}
	return true, nil
}

func (r *issueSQLRepositoryImpl) CountForPrefix(ctx context.Context, prefix string, opts domain.IssueTableOpts) (int, error) {
	if prefix == "" {
		return 0, errors.New("db: CountForPrefix: prefix must not be empty")

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Ensure the caller populates the id (e.g. from an existing issue) before calling Exists
Guard with `if id == "" { return false, nil }` when an empty id legitimately means 'does not exist' in your domain
Verify the ID was not truncated by string splitting (e.g. `strings.TrimPrefix(id, "bd-")` on an already-bare id)

Example fix

// before
exists, err := repo.Exists(ctx, issue.ID, opts)
// after
if issue.ID == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("issue has no id; cannot check existence")
}
exists, err := repo.Exists(ctx, issue.ID, opts)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

func requireID(id string) error {
    if id == "" {
        return errors.New("issue id is empty")
    }
    return nil
}

Type guard

func hasID(id string) bool { return strings.TrimSpace(id) != "" }

Try / catch

exists, err := repo.Exists(ctx, id, opts)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("check existence for %q: %w", id, err)
}

Prevention

Never pass struct fields straight into Exists without checking they are populated
When parsing IDs with TrimPrefix/Split, assert the remainder is non-empty
Make ID generation mandatory at issue-construction time

When it happens

Trigger: Calling issueSQLRepositoryImpl.Exists(ctx, "", opts) — i.e. any code path that passes an empty/zero-value id, typically from an issue struct whose ID field was never set or from parsing an empty string.

Common situations: Constructing an Issue literal without an ID and calling Exists on it; splitting/parsing an ID string like 'bd-' that yields an empty suffix; passing an empty variable after a failed lookup.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/152fc8b0ecb130b5. Report an issue: GitHub.