What causes "failed to generate child ID: %w" in gastownhall/beads?

Retry the create; transient storage/lock failures usually clear

failed to generate child ID: %w

Error message

failed to generate child ID: %w

What it means

Wraps a failure from GetNextChildID when generating a hierarchical child ID (e.g. bd-xyz-1) for an issue created with a --parent in the embedded create form. The parent exists, but its next child sequence could not be computed. This is a storage/counter-layer failure surfaced verbatim to the caller.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/create_form.go:115

// CreateIssueFromFormValues creates an issue from the given form values.
// It returns the created issue and any error that occurred.
// This function handles parent-child relationships, labels, dependencies,
// and source_repo inheritance.
func CreateIssueFromFormValues(ctx context.Context, s storage.DoltStorage, fv *createFormValues, actor string) (*types.Issue, error) {
	// If parent is specified, validate it exists and generate child ID
	var explicitID string
	var inheritedLabels []string
	if fv.ParentID != "" {
		_, err := s.GetIssue(ctx, fv.ParentID)
		if err != nil {
			if errors.Is(err, storage.ErrNotFound) {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("parent issue %s not found", fv.ParentID)
			}
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to check parent issue: %w", err)
		}
		childID, err := s.GetNextChildID(ctx, fv.ParentID)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to generate child ID: %w", err)
		}
		explicitID = childID
		ctx = storage.WithReservedChildCounter(ctx, fv.ParentID, childID)

		// Inherit parent labels (GH#2100), matching bd create --parent behavior
		inheritedLabels, _ = s.GetLabels(ctx, fv.ParentID)
	}

	var externalRefPtr *string
	if fv.ExternalRef != "" {
		externalRefPtr = &fv.ExternalRef
	}

	labels := mergeCreateLabels(fv.Labels, inheritedLabels)

	issue := &types.Issue{
		Title:              fv.Title,
		Description:        fv.Description,

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Retry the create; transient storage/lock failures usually clear
Run `bd doctor` to check database health
Verify the parent issue still exists with `bd show <parentID>`
If persistent, check Dolt database integrity in .beads/

Example fix

// before
childID, err := s.GetNextChildID(ctx, fv.ParentID)
if err != nil {
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to generate child ID: %w", err)
}
// after: no code change — inspect wrapped err; typically recover by retrying or repairing storage

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

if _, err := findIssue(parentID); err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("parent %s unavailable: %w", parentID, err) }

Try / catch

for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
    issue, err := CreateIssueFromFormValues(ctx, fv)
    if err == nil { break }
    if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to generate child ID") { return err }
    time.Sleep(backoff)
}

Prevention

Verify the parent issue exists before opening the create form
Keep the embedded Dolt database healthy (bd doctor)
Avoid deleting a parent while a child form is open

When it happens

Trigger: CreateIssueFromFormValues is called with fv.ParentID set and s.GetNextChildID returns an error (storage lookup or counter reservation failure for the parent's children).

Common situations: Corrupt or locked Dolt database during embedded form use; parent issue deleted between the existence check and child-ID generation; storage driver failures inside an embedded session.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0b8c9a40e8a0038b. Report an issue: GitHub.