What causes "failed to update gate with discovered run ID: %w" in gastownhall/beads?

Check the wrapped cause (%w) for the storage-layer error message

failed to update gate with discovered run ID: %w

Error message

failed to update gate with discovered run ID: %w

What it means

Wraps the storage error returned when persisting the auto-discovered numeric run ID back onto the gate (cmd/bd/gate.go:1042). Discovery succeeded, but the persistAwaitID callback (a database update of the gate's await_id) failed, so the numeric ID is not cached for future checks.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/gate.go:1042

	}

	// If await_id is a workflow name hint (non-numeric), auto-discover the run ID
	if !isNumericID(gate.AwaitID) {
		var discoveredID string
		var discoverErr error
		if repo == "" {
			discoveredID, discoverErr = discoverRunIDByWorkflowNameFunc(gate.AwaitID)
		} else {
			discoveredID, discoverErr = discoverRunIDByWorkflowNameInRepoWithRunner(gate.AwaitID, repo, runGH)
		}
		if discoverErr != nil {
			return false, false, fmt.Sprintf("workflow hint '%s': %v", gate.AwaitID, discoverErr), nil
		}

		if persistAwaitID != nil {
			// Non-dry-run flows persist the numeric run ID for future checks.
			if updateErr := persistAwaitID(gate.ID, discoveredID); updateErr != nil {
				return false, false, "", fmt.Errorf("failed to update gate with discovered run ID: %w", updateErr)
			}
		}

		runID = discoveredID
	}

	if repo == "" {
		return checkGHRunStatusFunc(runID)
	}
	return checkGHRunStatusInRepoWithRunner(runID, repo, runGH)
}

func checkGHRunStatus(runID string) (resolved, escalated bool, reason string, err error) {
	return checkGHRunStatusInRepo(runID, "")
}

func checkGHRunStatusInRepo(runID, repo string) (resolved, escalated bool, reason string, err error) {
	return checkGHRunStatusInRepoWithRunner(runID, repo, runGHCommand)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Check the wrapped cause (%w) for the storage-layer error message
Confirm the gate still exists: `bd show <gate-id>`
Retry the gate check — persistence is retried on the next evaluation
Verify database connectivity and that no other process holds a conflicting write

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

if _, _, _, err := checkGHRun(gate); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to update gate with discovered run ID") {
    // persistence failed; the check itself may still succeed — retry or log and continue
}

Prevention

Keep the beads DB connection healthy and migrations applied
Avoid concurrent writers to the same gate issue
Ensure the gate still exists before evaluation flows that persist

When it happens

Trigger: checkGHRunWithRunner resolves a workflow-name hint, then calls persistAwaitID(gate.ID, discoveredID) during a non-dry-run flow, and the underlying DB update returns an error (store closed, locked, concurrent modification, or write failure).

Common situations: Dolt/database connection dropped mid-operation, another process holds a conflicting write to the same issue, gate was deleted between read and update, disk or migration error in the beads store.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aecbb7d4dbca3e5d. Report an issue: GitHub.