gastownhall/beads · error

failed to get conflicts: %w

Error message

failed to get conflicts: %w

What it means

getInternalConflicts reads the dolt_conflicts system table to detect unresolved merge conflicts in the current working set. This error wraps failure of that SELECT — usually because the dolt_conflicts table doesn't exist (no merge has been attempted / not a Dolt database) or the query failed for connectivity/permission reasons. The driver error is chained via %w.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/dolt/history.go:169

// getIssueAsOf returns an issue as it existed at a specific commit or time
func (s *DoltStore) getIssueAsOf(ctx context.Context, issueID string, ref string) (*types.Issue, error) {
	var result *types.Issue
	err := s.withReadTx(ctx, func(tx *sql.Tx) error {
		var err error
		result, err = issueops.AsOfInTx(ctx, tx, issueID, ref)
		return err
	})
	return result, err
}

// getInternalConflicts returns any merge conflicts in the current state (internal format).
// For the public interface, use GetConflicts which returns storage.Conflict.
func (s *DoltStore) getInternalConflicts(ctx context.Context) ([]*tableConflict, error) {
	rows, err := s.queryContext(ctx,
		"SELECT `table`, num_conflicts FROM dolt_conflicts")
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get conflicts: %w", err)
	}
	defer rows.Close()

	var conflicts []*tableConflict
	for rows.Next() {
		var c tableConflict
		if err := rows.Scan(&c.TableName, &c.NumConflicts); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to scan conflict: %w", err)
		}
		conflicts = append(conflicts, &c)
	}

	return conflicts, rows.Err()
}

// tableConflict represents a Dolt table-level merge conflict (internal representation).
type tableConflict struct {
	TableName    string

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped cause to distinguish 'table does not exist' (benign: no conflicts) from connection/auth failures, and handle the benign case explicitly.
2. Verify the backend is a Dolt database/sql-server that supports the dolt_conflicts system table.
3. Restore connectivity to the Dolt server (check server process, port, and credentials) and retry.

Example fix

// before
conflicts, err := store.GetConflicts(ctx)
if err != nil { return err } // fails when dolt_conflicts absent
// after
conflicts, err := store.GetConflicts(ctx)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "dolt_conflicts") && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "not exist") {
    conflicts = nil // no merge attempted: treat as no conflicts
} else if err != nil { return err }

var exists int
err := db.QueryRow("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_name = 'dolt_conflicts'").Scan(&exists)
hasConflictTable := err == nil && exists > 0

conflicts, err := store.GetConflicts(ctx)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "doesn't exist") {
        conflicts = nil // no merge performed: no conflicts
    } else {
        return fmt.Errorf("conflict check failed: %w", err)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GetConflicts (which delegates to getInternalConflicts) on a store whose engine has no dolt_conflicts system table (e.g. plain MySQL backend, or Dolt before any merge conflict occurred in some engine versions), or when the connection to the Dolt sql-server has failed.

Common situations: Checking conflicts after a sync/pull against a backend that isn't Dolt; older Dolt engines lacking dolt_conflicts; server restart or dropped connection between merge and conflict inspection; insufficient privileges on system tables.

Related errors

• failed to get issue history: %w
• failed to scan conflict: %w
• db: GetAllConfig: %w
• db: GetCustomTypes: query custom_types: %w
• uow: external: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2c65971eeef1b85d. Report an issue: GitHub.