gastownhall/beads · error

ExternalDoltConfig: Host requires Port

Error message

ExternalDoltConfig: Host requires Port

What it means

A dependency's optional ThreadID is length-checked with types.CheckFieldLen("dependency thread_id", ...); over-length values are rejected with the dependency's index in the message and wrapped as ErrValidation.

Source

Thrown at internal/configfile/external_dolt_config.go:50

func (c ExternalDoltConfig) ResolvedUser() string {
	if c.User == "" {
		return ExternalDoltConfigDefaultUser
	}
	return c.User
}

func (c ExternalDoltConfig) Validate() error {
	hasHost := c.Host != ""
	hasPort := c.Port != 0
	hasSocket := c.Socket != ""

	switch {
	case hasSocket && (hasHost || hasPort):
		return errors.New("ExternalDoltConfig: set either Socket OR (Host, Port), not both")
	case !hasSocket && !hasHost && !hasPort:
		return errors.New("ExternalDoltConfig: must set Socket or (Host, Port)")
	case hasHost && !hasPort:
		return errors.New("ExternalDoltConfig: Host requires Port")
	case !hasHost && hasPort:
		return errors.New("ExternalDoltConfig: Port requires Host")
	}

	if hasHost && (c.Port < 1 || c.Port > 65535) {
		return fmt.Errorf("ExternalDoltConfig: Port %d out of range [1, 65535]", c.Port)
	}

	if hasSocket && !filepath.IsAbs(c.Socket) {
		return fmt.Errorf("ExternalDoltConfig: Socket %q is not absolute", c.Socket)
	}

	switch {
	case c.TLSCert != "" && c.TLSKey == "":
		return errors.New("ExternalDoltConfig: TLSCert set without TLSKey")
	case c.TLSCert == "" && c.TLSKey != "":
		return errors.New("ExternalDoltConfig: TLSKey set without TLSCert")
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Shorten the ThreadID to the allowed length.
2. Move auxiliary data into Metadata (valid JSON) instead of overloading ThreadID.
3. Pre-check with types.CheckFieldLen("dependency thread_id", id) client-side.

Example fix

// before
ThreadID: "sess-2026-08-30T10:00:00Z-very-long-worker-uuid-0f3a9c..." // too long
// after
ThreadID: "sess-0f3a9c"

for i, d := range req.Dependencies {
    if err := types.CheckFieldLen("dependency thread_id", d.ThreadID); err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("dependency %d: %w", i, err)
    }
}

if err := store.ExecuteCreate(ctx, req); err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, storage.ErrValidation) && errors.Is(err, types.ErrFieldTooLong) { /* shorten ThreadID */ }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: ExecuteCreate/ValidatePublicCreateRequest where request.Dependencies[index].ThreadID exceeds the allowed field length; check at public_create.go:174.

Common situations: Storing long session/thread identifiers, concatenating thread metadata into the ID field, or a schema/config change that reduced the max length after existing data was written.

Related errors

• no absolute native user directory is available
• no store is open for this workspace
• ExternalDoltConfig: set either Socket OR (Host, Port), not b
• ExternalDoltConfig: must set Socket or (Host, Port)
• ExternalDoltConfig: Port requires Host

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ec72b0ae14dfea4e. Report an issue: GitHub.