What causes "db: GetAdaptiveIDConfig: read max_collision_prob: %w" in gastownhall/beads?

Unwrap the error to identify the underlying driver failure.

db: GetAdaptiveIDConfig: read max_collision_prob: %w

Error message

db: GetAdaptiveIDConfig: read max_collision_prob: %w

What it means

This error wraps a GetConfig(ctx, "max_collision_prob") failure while assembling the AdaptiveIDConfig in GetAdaptiveIDConfig. It fires only on driver/connection errors — an unset key returns empty string and the default MaxCollisionProbability is kept. The setting value itself is never the cause; parse failures are silently ignored by design.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/domain/db/config.go:217

	if len(out) == 0 {
		return nil
	}
	return out
}

func (r *configSQLRepositoryImpl) GetAllowedPrefixes(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
	value, err := r.GetConfig(ctx, "allowed_prefixes")
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("db: GetAllowedPrefixes: %w", err)
	}
	return value, nil
}

func (r *configSQLRepositoryImpl) GetAdaptiveIDConfig(ctx context.Context) (domain.AdaptiveIDConfig, error) {
	cfg := domain.DefaultAdaptiveConfig()

	if probStr, err := r.GetConfig(ctx, "max_collision_prob"); err != nil {
		return cfg, fmt.Errorf("db: GetAdaptiveIDConfig: read max_collision_prob: %w", err)
	} else if probStr != "" {
		if prob, perr := strconv.ParseFloat(probStr, 64); perr == nil {
			cfg.MaxCollisionProbability = prob
		}
	}

	if minStr, err := r.GetConfig(ctx, "min_hash_length"); err != nil {
		return cfg, fmt.Errorf("db: GetAdaptiveIDConfig: read min_hash_length: %w", err)
	} else if minStr != "" {
		if v, perr := strconv.Atoi(minStr); perr == nil {
			cfg.MinLength = v
		}
	}

	if maxStr, err := r.GetConfig(ctx, "max_hash_length"); err != nil {
		return cfg, fmt.Errorf("db: GetAdaptiveIDConfig: read max_hash_length: %w", err)
	} else if maxStr != "" {
		if v, perr := strconv.Atoi(maxStr); perr == nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Unwrap the error to identify the underlying driver failure.
Retry once the connection is restored; startup-time callers can re-attempt initialization.
Raise context timeouts if the read is being cancelled.
Run a manual `SELECT value FROM config WHERE key='max_collision_prob'` to confirm server health.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

cfg, err := store.GetAdaptiveIDConfig(ctx)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "max_collision_prob") || errors.Is(err, context.Canceled) {
        return domain.DefaultAdaptiveConfig(), nil // safe fallback to defaults
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("adaptive config load failed: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Fall back to domain.DefaultAdaptiveConfig() on transient failures rather than aborting.
Batch config reads early in startup while the connection is fresh.
Use errors.Is to distinguish cancellation from hard failures.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GetAdaptiveIDConfig when the SELECT on the config table for max_collision_prob fails (broken connection, cancelled context, server error).

Common situations: Database connectivity issues during startup/initialization of the adaptive ID subsystem; request contexts cancelled before the read completes; remote Dolt server restarts.

Understand the failure class

Background: Database query failed: Internal Server Error 500s wrapping SQL, Prisma, and connection failures — what to check first — this error's family across 16 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aa3d2e4d88944b6e. Report an issue: GitHub.