gastownhall/beads · error

failed to parse tier1 template: %w

Error message

failed to parse tier1 template: %w

What it means

newHaikuClient parses the built-in Go text/template tier1PromptTemplate at construction time. This is a compile-time-invariant template embedded in the binary, so a parse failure indicates the internal prompt template constant is malformed — practically only possible with a corrupted build or a modified/patched binary.

Source

Thrown at internal/compact/haiku.go:64

// newHaikuClient creates a new Haiku API client.
// API key resolution order: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var > MINIMAX_API_KEY env var > ai.api_key config > explicit apiKey parameter.
func newHaikuClient(apiKey string) (*haikuClient, error) {
	apiKey, keySource := config.ResolveAIAPIKey(apiKey)
	if apiKey == "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%w: set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, MINIMAX_API_KEY, or ai.api_key in config", errAPIKeyRequired)
	}

	clientOptions := []option.RequestOption{option.WithAPIKey(apiKey)}
	baseURL := config.DefaultAIBaseURL(keySource)
	if baseURL != "" {
		clientOptions = append(clientOptions, option.WithBaseURL(baseURL))
	}

	client := anthropic.NewClient(clientOptions...)

	tier1Tmpl, err := template.New("tier1").Parse(tier1PromptTemplate)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse tier1 template: %w", err)
	}

	aiMetricsOnce.Do(initAIMetrics)

	return &haikuClient{
		client:         client,
		model:          config.DefaultAIModelFor(keySource),
		apiKeySource:   keySource,
		baseURL:        baseURL,
		tier1Template:  tier1Tmpl,
		maxRetries:     maxRetries,
		initialBackoff: initialBackoff,
	}, nil
}

// SummarizeTier1 creates a structured summary of an issue (Summary, Key Decisions, Resolution).
func (h *haikuClient) SummarizeTier1(ctx context.Context, issue *types.Issue) (string, error) {
	prompt, err := h.renderTier1Prompt(issue)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Check the tier1PromptTemplate constant for unbalanced or malformed {{ }} template actions
2. Rebuild from a clean checkout of upstream main
3. Run `go test ./internal/compact/...` — TestNewHaikuClient tests will reproduce the parse failure instantly
4. If you patched the template, validate the syntax with template.Must in a scratch program

Example fix

// before
tier1PromptTemplate := `Summarize: {{ .Title` // missing closing braces
// after
tier1PromptTemplate := `Summarize: {{ .Title }}`

client, err := compact.New(key)
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("compact client init failed (template/build problem): %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: template.New("tier1").Parse(tier1PromptTemplate) fails while constructing the haiku client — only when the embedded template source is invalid (broken {{...}} action syntax in the package constant).

Common situations: Local patches to tier1PromptTemplate introducing template syntax errors; merge conflicts in haiku.go resolved incorrectly; binary built from a broken branch.

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

• multiple .doltcfg directories detected
• dolt directory is required
• httpapi: a configured role fires this workspace's hooks; thi
• httpapi: the configured provider fires this workspace's hook
• httpapi: this server has no unit-of-work provider; it answer

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3f201f92b2cd7393. Report an issue: GitHub.