gastownhall/beads · error

failed to parse gh output: %w

Error message

failed to parse gh output: %w

What it means

Wraps a JSON unmarshal failure when parsing `gh run view --json status,conclusion,name` output (cmd/bd/gate.go:1085). gh exited 0 but produced output that doesn't fit the expected ghRunStatus shape.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/gate.go:1085

		args = append(args, "--repo", repo)
	}
	stdout, stderr, runErr := runGH(args...)
	if runErr != nil {
		// Check if gh CLI is not found
		if strings.Contains(string(stderr), "command not found") ||
			strings.Contains(runErr.Error(), "executable file not found") {
			return false, false, "", fmt.Errorf("gh CLI not installed")
		}
		// Check if run not found
		if strings.Contains(string(stderr), "not found") {
			return false, true, "workflow run not found", nil
		}
		return false, false, "", fmt.Errorf("gh run view failed: %s", string(stderr))
	}

	var status ghRunStatus
	if parseErr := json.Unmarshal(stdout, &status); parseErr != nil {
		return false, false, "", fmt.Errorf("failed to parse gh output: %w", parseErr)
	}

	// Evaluate status
	switch status.Status {
	case "completed":
		switch status.Conclusion {
		case "success":
			return true, false, fmt.Sprintf("workflow '%s' succeeded", status.Name), nil
		case "failure":
			return false, true, fmt.Sprintf("workflow '%s' failed", status.Name), nil
		case "cancelled", "canceled":
			return false, true, fmt.Sprintf("workflow '%s' was canceled", status.Name), nil
		case "skipped":
			return true, false, fmt.Sprintf("workflow '%s' was skipped", status.Name), nil
		default:
			return false, true, fmt.Sprintf("workflow '%s' concluded with %s", status.Name, status.Conclusion), nil
		}
	case "in_progress", "queued", "pending", "waiting":

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Check the wrapped parse error (%w) for the JSON offset/type mismatch
2. Upgrade the gh CLI (`gh upgrade` or reinstall) to a version supporting `gh run view --json`
3. Run `gh run view <id> --json status,conclusion,name` manually to inspect raw output
4. Confirm gh is not aliased/wrapped by a script polluting stdout

Example fix

// before
gh version 0.9 (no --json on run view)
// after
brew upgrade gh && gh --version  # >= 2.x

if out, err := exec.Command("gh", "--version").Output(); err != nil || !strings.HasPrefix(string(out), "gh version 2") {
    // upgrade gh: --json output required
}

if _, _, _, err := checkGHRunStatus(runID); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to parse gh output") {
    // capture raw output for diagnosis; likely gh version or environment issue
}

When it happens

Trigger: gh succeeds but stdout is not the expected JSON — empty output, gh CLI version too old lacking --json fields, or gh emitting warnings/human text mixed into stdout.

Common situations: Ancient gh version (pre --json support), locale/env causing gh to print non-JSON to stdout, piping where stderr text lands in stdout, truncated output from a broken terminal wrapper.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• parsing JSON: %w
• parse gh output: %w
• failed to parse JSONL line: %w
• failed to parse memory record: %w
• failed to parse issue from JSONL: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/489c5020ba7ac405. Report an issue: GitHub.