gastownhall/beads · error

--debug cannot be combined with --proxied-server-external-*

Error message

--debug cannot be combined with --proxied-server-external-* (debug applies to the managed dolt sql-server only)

What it means

`--debug` enables debug logging for the managed dolt sql-server spawned by proxied-server mode. When you use external mode (`--proxied-server-external-*` flags) there is no managed server process, so debug has no target; init rejects the combination to avoid a silently ignored flag (cmd/bd/init.go:510-512).

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/init.go:511

				return fmt.Errorf("--proxied-server-idle-timeout must be 0 (never) or a positive duration, got %s", serverProxyIdleTimeout)
			}
			if serverProxyIdleTimeout == 0 {
				serverProxyIdleTimeout = proxy.IdleTimeoutNever
			}
		}

		externalProvided := externalHost != "" || externalPort != 0 || externalSocketPath != "" ||
			externalUser != "" ||
			externalTLS || externalTLSCACertPath != "" || externalTLSCertPath != "" || externalTLSKeyPath != "" ||
			externalTLSServerName != "" || externalTLSSkipVerify || externalKeepAlive != 0
		if externalProvided && !initProxiedServer {
			return fmt.Errorf("--proxied-server-external-* flags require --proxied-server")
		}
		if externalProvided && serverConfigPath != "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--proxied-server-external-* flags cannot be combined with --proxied-server-config-path (external mode has no managed dolt sql-server to configure)")
		}
		if externalProvided && debugMode {
			return fmt.Errorf("--debug cannot be combined with --proxied-server-external-* (debug applies to the managed dolt sql-server only)")
		}
		var externalConfig *configfile.ExternalDoltConfig
		if externalProvided {
			cfg := configfile.ExternalDoltConfig{
				Host:            externalHost,
				Port:            externalPort,
				Socket:          externalSocketPath,
				User:            externalUser,
				TLSRequired:     externalTLS,
				TLSCACert:       externalTLSCACertPath,
				TLSCert:         externalTLSCertPath,
				TLSKey:          externalTLSKeyPath,
				TLSServerName:   externalTLSServerName,
				TLSSkipVerify:   externalTLSSkipVerify,
				KeepAlivePeriod: externalKeepAlive,
			}
			if err := cfg.Validate(); err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("--proxied-server-external-*: %v", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Drop `--debug` when using external mode; debug the external server itself instead.
2. Remove the external-* flags and use a managed server config (keeping --debug) if you need managed-server debug output.
3. Capture external server logs on the side where the external dolt sql-server runs.

Example fix

// before
bd init --proxied-server --debug --proxied-server-external-host db.example.com
// after
bd init --proxied-server --proxied-server-external-host db.example.com

#!/usr/bin/env bash
if [[ "$DEBUG" == "1" ]] && [[ -n "$EXT_HOST$EXT_PORT$EXT_SOCKET$EXT_TLS" ]]; then
  echo "--debug does not apply to external mode" >&2; exit 2
fi

func debugFlagValid(debug bool, externalSet bool) bool { return !(debug && externalSet) }

if out, err := exec.Command("bd", "init", args...).CombinedOutput(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(string(out), "--debug cannot be combined with --proxied-server-external-*") {
        // remove --debug for external mode
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `bd init --proxied-server --debug` together with any `--proxied-server-external-*` flag — the check is `externalProvided && debugMode`.

Common situations: Debugging connectivity to an external dolt server by reflexively adding `--debug`; global wrapper scripts that always pass `--debug` in troubleshooting; copying a managed-mode debug command and swapping only the connection flags for external ones.

Related errors

• --proxied-server-external-* flags require --proxied-server
• --proxied-server-external-* flags cannot be combined with --
• cannot use multiple conflict resolution flags
• --proxied-server-root-path requires --proxied-server
• --proxied-server-root-path must be an absolute path, got %q

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/907249e66b8b6621. Report an issue: GitHub.