gastownhall/beads · error

failed to configure git hooks path: %w

Error message

failed to configure git hooks path: %w

What it means

In beads-hooks mode, after writing hook files bd runs configureBeadsHooksPath to set git's local core.hooksPath to .beads/hooks. If that configuration step fails, installHooksWithOptions wraps it in this error — hooks were written, but git would not use them. The concrete git failure (and any command output) is in the wrapped error.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/hooks.go:982

					newContent = injectHookSection(existingStr, section)
				}
			}
		}

		// Normalize line endings to LF
		newContent = strings.ReplaceAll(newContent, "\r\n", "\n")

		// Write hook file
		// #nosec G306 -- git hooks must be executable for Git to run them
		if err := os.WriteFile(hookPath, []byte(newContent), 0755); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to write %s: %w", hookName, err)
		}
	}

	// Configure git to use the hooks directory
	if beadsHooks {
		if err := configureBeadsHooksPath(); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to configure git hooks path: %w", err)
		}
	} else if shared {
		if err := configureSharedHooksPath(); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to configure git hooks path: %w", err)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

// preservePreexistingHooks copies non-beads hooks from the currently effective
// hooks directory into targetDir. This prevents hooks from a global
// core.hooksPath (or the default .git/hooks/) from being silently lost when
// beads sets a local core.hooksPath override.
func preservePreexistingHooks(targetDir string) {
	// Get the hooks directory git would currently use (before we override it).
	currentDir, err := git.GetGitHooksDir()
	if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Ensure you are inside a git repository (git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree) and re-run
2. Inspect the wrapped error for the underlying git message and fix accordingly
3. Check .git/config is valid and writable; repair or re-clone if corrupt
4. Set core.hooksPath manually: `git config core.hooksPath .beads/hooks`

Example fix

// before
$ cd /not-a-repo && bd hooks install --beads-hooks
failed to configure git hooks path: not in a git repository
// after
$ cd ~/myproject && bd hooks install --beads-hooks

git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo 'not in a git repo; bd hooks path config will fail'

if err := installHooksWithOptions(names, false, false, false, true); err != nil { if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "configure git hooks path") { /* ensure in-repo and run: git config core.hooksPath .beads/hooks */ } }

When it happens

Trigger: installHooksWithOptions with beadsHooks=true calls configureBeadsHooksPath, which fails — usually because the current directory is not inside a git repository, or the underlying `git config core.hooksPath` command errors.

Common situations: Running `bd hooks install --beads-hooks` in a non-git directory; a bare/odd repo layout where git config cannot resolve; broken git installation or corrupt .git/config.

Related errors

• not in a git repository
• refusing to write secret key %q to git-tracked config file %
• server: NewDoltServer: doltBinExec is required
• server: NewDoltServer: rootDir is required
• server: NewDoltServer: configPath is required

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1eb404f19db6a966. Report an issue: GitHub.