gastownhall/beads · error

get issues by IDs: scan label: %w

Error message

get issues by IDs: scan label: %w

What it means

Wraps a labelRows.Scan failure while decoding (issue_id, label) pairs during label hydration in GetIssuesByIDsInTx. The label query succeeded but a returned row has unexpected column types or values.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/issueops/dependencies.go:1077

			}
			_ = rows.Close()
			if err := rows.Err(); err != nil {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("get issues by IDs: rows: %w", err)
			}

			// Hydrate labels.
			if len(issueMap) > 0 {
				labelRows, err := tx.QueryContext(ctx, fmt.Sprintf(
					`SELECT issue_id, label FROM %s WHERE issue_id IN (%s) ORDER BY issue_id, label`,
					pair.labelTbl, inClause), args...)
				if err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("get issues by IDs: labels from %s: %w", pair.labelTbl, err)
				}
				for labelRows.Next() {
					var issueID, label string
					if scanErr := labelRows.Scan(&issueID, &label); scanErr != nil {
						_ = labelRows.Close()
						return nil, fmt.Errorf("get issues by IDs: scan label: %w", scanErr)
					}
					if issue, ok := issueMap[issueID]; ok {
						issue.Labels = append(issue.Labels, label)
					}
				}
				_ = labelRows.Close()
				if err := labelRows.Err(); err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("get issues by IDs: label rows: %w", err)
				}
			}
		}
	}

	return allIssues, nil
}

// GetDependenciesWithMetadataInTx returns issues that the given issueID depends on,
// along with the dependency type. Works within an existing transaction.

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Inspect the offending label row for NULL/malformed values and fix the data
2. Run outstanding migrations to restore schema/scan alignment
3. Restore corrupted rows from backup if data corruption is confirmed

// Data preflight: detect label rows that would fail scanning (NULL label):
rows, err := db.QueryContext(ctx, `SELECT issue_id FROM labels WHERE label IS NULL`)
// If any rows return, clean or restore them before calling batch fetches.

_, err := GetIssuesByIDsInTx(ctx, tx, ids, nil)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "scan label") {
    // Deterministic data/schema problem — do not retry blindly.
    return fmt.Errorf("corrupt label row; run integrity repair: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: labelRows.Scan(&issueID, &label) fails on a row — e.g. label column is NULL or has a non-string type that doesn't match the declared schema.

Common situations: Corrupt or hand-edited label rows containing NULLs; schema drift between the label table and the scan code after a partial migration.

Related errors

• db: ChildCounterSQLRepository.NextChildID: scan: %w
• db: CommentSQLRepository.CountsByIssueIDs: scan: %w
• db: CommentSQLRepository.ListByIssueIDs: scan: %w
• db: LabelSQLRepository.List: scan: %w
• db: LabelSQLRepository.ListByIssueIDs: scan: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3e0e76853c2463c1. Report an issue: GitHub.