gastownhall/beads · error

expected assignee must name a holder; there is no release of

Error message

expected assignee must name a holder; there is no release of an unheld issue

What it means

ValidateReleaseRequest refuses an ExpectedAssignee that is a non-nil pointer to an empty/whitespace string. Unlike UpdateRequest, an empty expectation does NOT mean 'expected unassigned' — releasing an issue nobody holds is not a release. The underlying storage seam refuses the empty expectation, so the validator rejects it early with this message.

Source

Thrown at internal/workapi/release.go:37

// (issueops.Releaser.Release); that body is
// internal/storage/issueops.ReleaseIssueInTx, which all three legs reach.

// ValidateReleaseRequest applies the request rules every Releaser
// implementation shares.
func ValidateReleaseRequest(in issueops.ReleaseRequest) error {
	if strings.TrimSpace(in.Actor) == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("%w: release requires an actor to attribute it to", issueops.ErrValidation)
	}
	if strings.TrimSpace(in.IssueID) == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("%w: release requires an issue id", issueops.ErrValidation)
	}
	if in.ExpectedAssignee != nil {
		// A non-nil pointer to "" is NOT "expected unassigned" here, unlike
		// UpdateRequest.ExpectedAssignee: releasing a row nobody holds is not a
		// release, and the raw seam beneath this role refuses the empty
		// expectation in as many words.
		if strings.TrimSpace(*in.ExpectedAssignee) == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("%w: expected assignee must name a holder; there is no release of an unheld issue",
				issueops.ErrValidation)
		}
		// The two are answers to the same question and they disagree, which is
		// the rule UpdateRequest states for ForceAssigneeTransfer beside its
		// own ExpectedAssignee.
		if in.Force {
			return fmt.Errorf("%w: force releases whoever holds the issue and expected-assignee releases only a named holder; a request cannot ask for both",
				issueops.ErrValidation)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Either set ExpectedAssignee to the non-empty name of the expected holder, or set it to nil to express 'no expectation'
2. Fix call sites that take &emptyString unconditionally; build the pointer only when a holder was actually specified
3. Do not port UpdateRequest's empty-means-unassigned convention to release requests

Example fix

// before
var expected string // ends up ""
req := issueops.ReleaseRequest{Actor: "alice", IssueID: "bd-1", ExpectedAssignee: &expected}
// after
var expected *string
if holder != "" {
    expected = &holder
}
req := issueops.ReleaseRequest{Actor: "alice", IssueID: "bd-1", ExpectedAssignee: expected}

if req.ExpectedAssignee != nil && strings.TrimSpace(*req.ExpectedAssignee) == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("expectedAssignee must name a holder; use nil for no expectation")
}

func hasValidExpectedAssignee(req issueops.ReleaseRequest) bool {
    return req.ExpectedAssignee == nil || strings.TrimSpace(*req.ExpectedAssignee) != ""
}

if err := releaser.Release(ctx, req); err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, issueops.ErrValidation) {
        return fmt.Errorf("invalid expected-assignee: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing issueops.ReleaseRequest{Actor: "a", IssueID: "bd-1", ExpectedAssignee: ptr("")} or ptr(" ") — a non-nil pointer to a blank string — to any Releaser implementation.

Common situations: A caller reused code written against UpdateRequest.ExpectedAssignee semantics where "" meant unassigned; a variable holding the expected holder was empty but the code took its address anyway instead of leaving the pointer nil.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• release requires an actor to attribute it to
• release requires an issue id
• force releases whoever holds the issue and expected-assignee
• no store is open for this workspace
• not found

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/caa820fa5f5aa1e7. Report an issue: GitHub.