gastownhall/beads · error

failed to get comments: %w

Error message

failed to get comments: %w

What it means

GetIssueComments fails when the SELECT of comments for an issue cannot be executed. The error from the query layer (bad table, connection loss, canceled context) is wrapped as 'failed to get comments'. Reached via IterIssueComments when iterating issue comments.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/dolt/events.go:135

	return result, nil
}

// GetIssueComments retrieves all comments for an issue
func (s *DoltStore) GetIssueComments(ctx context.Context, issueID string) ([]*types.Comment, error) {
	table := "comments"
	if s.isActiveWisp(ctx, issueID) {
		table = "wisp_comments"
	}

	//nolint:gosec // G201: table is hardcoded
	rows, err := s.queryContext(ctx, fmt.Sprintf(`
		SELECT id, issue_id, author, text, created_at
		FROM %s
		WHERE issue_id = ?
		ORDER BY created_at ASC, id ASC
	`, table), issueID)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get comments: %w", err)
	}
	defer rows.Close()

	return scanComments(rows)
}

// GetIssueCommentsPage returns one keyset page of an issue's comments in
// (created_at ASC, id ASC) order, resuming strictly after the cursor. See the
// storage.Storage doc for the ordering, sargability, and page-walk-equals-full-
// read contract.
func (s *DoltStore) GetIssueCommentsPage(ctx context.Context, issueID string, after storage.CommentPageCursor, limit int) ([]*types.Comment, error) {
	var result []*types.Comment
	err := s.withReadTx(ctx, func(tx *sql.Tx) error {
		var err error
		result, err = issueops.GetIssueCommentsPageInTx(ctx, tx, issueID, after, limit)
		return err
	})
	return result, err

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Confirm the comments table exists with the expected columns (`dolt sql -q "DESCRIBE comments"` or equivalent).
2. Run `bd doctor` to detect schema/version drift and apply migrations.
3. Restart the bd process / Dolt server if the error indicates a broken connection.
4. Check that the issue ID passed to GetIssueComments is a valid, correctly formatted ID.

Example fix

// before: swallowing the distinction between empty and failed
comments, err := store.GetIssueComments(ctx, id)
if err != nil {
	comments = nil
}
// after: surface the error to the user
comments, err := store.GetIssueComments(ctx, id)
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("cannot list comments for %s: %w", id, err)
}

// Go: confirm the comments table exists before listing
_, err := db.Query("SELECT 1 FROM comments LIMIT 1")
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("comments table missing (run migrations): %w", err)
}

func IsCommentsFetchError(err error) bool {
	return err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to get comments")
}

comments, err := store.GetIssueComments(ctx, issueID)
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("cannot read comments for %s: %w", issueID, err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Querying comments when the comments table is missing (uninitialized/partially migrated DB), the issue_id filter references a malformed ID, the Dolt connection dropped mid-query, or the context was canceled during IterIssueComments.

Common situations: `bd show <issue>` or comment listing after a schema migration changed the comments table; reading from a database created by a newer bd version; Dolt server restart between opening the store and issuing the query.

Understand the failure class

Background: "query failed", "%w: SQL error" — wrapped database query errors in Go libraries explained — this error's family across 3 libraries.

Related errors

• ErrQuery
• failed to scan comment: %w
• failed to check remote %s: %w
• comment counts: %w
• descendants: query: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d169c729f3b8159c. Report an issue: GitHub.