gastownhall/beads · error

delete: affected by deletion: %w

Error message

delete: affected by deletion: %w

What it means

deleteMany wraps errors from issueRepo.AffectedByDeletion, which finds remaining issues whose text references or dependencies point at the IDs being deleted. The 'delete: affected by deletion:' prefix marks this step; the driver error is preserved via %w. Depending on where the failure occurs, some delete steps (e.g. dependency drops) may already have partially completed.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/domain/issue_delete.go:163

		return result, nil
	}

	var connected map[string]*types.Issue
	var connectedIsWisp map[string]bool
	if params.UpdateTextReferences {
		deletedSet := make(map[string]bool, len(allIDs))
		for _, id := range allIDs {
			deletedSet[id] = true
		}
		connected, connectedIsWisp, err = u.collectConnectedIssues(ctx, allIDs, deletedSet)
		if err != nil {
			return result, err
		}
	}

	affectedIssues, affectedWisps, err := u.issueRepo.AffectedByDeletion(ctx, regularIDs, wispIDs)
	if err != nil {
		return result, fmt.Errorf("delete: affected by deletion: %w", err)
	}

	if _, err := u.depRepo.DeleteAllForIDs(ctx, regularIDs, DepInsertOpts{}); err != nil {
		return result, fmt.Errorf("delete: drop deps: %w", err)
	}
	if _, err := u.depRepo.DeleteAllForIDs(ctx, wispIDs, DepInsertOpts{UseWispsTable: true}); err != nil {
		return result, fmt.Errorf("delete: drop wisp deps: %w", err)
	}
	// The SYNC-PLANE edges pointing at a deleted wisp, which are not the same
	// rows as the line above and are not reached by a foreign key: there is no
	// FK from dependencies to wisps, so `dependencies.depends_on_wisp_id` rows
	// survive their target unless they are deleted explicitly. Without this a
	// forced delete of a wisp left its durable dependent holding an edge into
	// a row that no longer exists — dangling, not orphaned, which is not what
	// issueops.DeleteRequest.Force promises. The store body has always done
	// this (issueops.deleteIssueRowInTx -> DeleteWispFromDependenciesInTx).
	if _, err := u.depRepo.DeleteAllForIDs(ctx, wispIDs, DepInsertOpts{}); err != nil {
		return result, fmt.Errorf("delete: drop sync-plane edges into deleted wisps: %w", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped AffectedByDeletion error to find the driver failure
2. Verify Dolt is reachable and check for a partially completed delete before retrying
3. Re-run the delete; the operation is designed to be resumable/re-runnable
4. If schema errors persist, run the beads migration path

Example fix

// before
res, err := uc.DeleteIssues(ctx, ids, actor)
if err != nil { return err }
// after
if err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "affected by deletion") {
		log.Printf("delete may be partially applied, verify state: %v", err)
	}
	return err
}

if err := pingDolt(ctx); err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("storage unavailable, deferring delete: %w", err)
}

res, err := uc.DeleteIssues(ctx, ids, actor)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "affected by deletion") {
	// failure late in the pipeline: verify delete state, then re-run
	log.Printf("delete interrupted at cross-reference check: %v", err)
	return verifyAndRetryDelete(ctx, ids)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any deleteMany invocation reaching the post-dry-run phase when AffectedByDeletion(ctx, regularIDs, wispIDs) fails — DB connection error, SQL error in the cross-reference query, storage unavailable mid-delete.

Common situations: Deletes of widely-referenced issues with many text references under load; Dolt restart mid-operation; schema drift on the issues/wisps tables.

Related errors

• delete: cascade expansion: %w
• delete: partition: %w
• delete: count labels: %w
• delete: count events: %w
• get molecule children: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/358a10486b7ee764. Report an issue: GitHub.