gastownhall/beads · error

error finding descendants: %v

Error message

error finding descendants: %v

What it means

After verifying the parent exists, getHierarchicalChildren calls findAllDescendants to recursively collect all children/descendants. If that recursive traversal fails (storage error, query failure), the underlying error is wrapped with this message.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/list_show_filter_modes.go:71

		var err error
		parentIssue, err = s.GetIssue(ctx, parentID)
		return err
	})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error checking parent issue: %v", err)
	}
	if parentIssue == nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("parent issue '%s' not found", parentID)
	}

	// Use recursive search to find all descendants using the same logic as --parent filter.
	// The parent itself is NOT included in the result set — only actual children and
	// their descendants. This matches the behavior of --json and --flat (GH#3349).
	allDescendants := make(map[string]*types.Issue)

	err = findAllDescendants(ctx, store, dbPath, parentID, baseFilter, allDescendants)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error finding descendants: %v", err)
	}

	if len(allDescendants) == 0 {
		return nil, nil
	}

	// Include the parent as the tree root only when descendants exist,
	// so the tree renderer can draw the hierarchy with the parent at the top.
	allDescendants[parentID] = parentIssue

	treeIssues := make([]*types.Issue, 0, len(allDescendants))
	for _, issue := range allDescendants {
		treeIssues = append(treeIssues, issue)
	}

	return treeIssues, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Re-run the command — transient storage errors often clear on retry
2. Check the wrapped error text for the underlying storage cause
3. Run `bd doctor` to validate the local database
4. Restore/repair the beads database if corruption is reported

out, err := exec.Command("bd", "list", "--parent", parentID).CombinedOutput()
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(string(out), "error finding descendants") {
        // retry or run `bd doctor` to check storage health
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any error surfaced from findAllDescendants while expanding `bd list --parent <id>` or the watched-issues hierarchy: database query failure, malformed baseFilter, storage-layer connectivity problems, or a corrupted dependency graph row.

Common situations: Embedded Dolt database locked or corrupted; I/O errors reading the store; failure happens only for large/deep hierarchies when a query times out; regression after a schema change.

Related errors

• resolving ID %s: %w
• failed to check parent issue: %w
• canonical issue not found: %s
• failed to add supersede link: %w
• batch create: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a2f47fb7f2b0b666. Report an issue: GitHub.