What causes "get labels %s: %w" in gastownhall/beads?

Inspect the wrapped error for the storage root cause

get labels %s: %w

Error message

get labels %s: %w

What it means

Wraps a failure from labelRepo.List in list (GetLabels / GetWispLabels). The message includes the ID being queried plus the underlying storage error. The read failed so no labels are returned; this never means the ID was empty (that is the sibling 'id must not be empty' error).

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/domain/label.go:197

	}
	return nil
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) GetLabels(ctx context.Context, issueID string) ([]string, error) {
	return u.list(ctx, issueID, false)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) GetWispLabels(ctx context.Context, wispID string) ([]string, error) {
	return u.list(ctx, wispID, true)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) list(ctx context.Context, id string, useWisp bool) ([]string, error) {
	if id == "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("get labels: id must not be empty")
	}
	out, err := u.labelRepo.List(ctx, id, LabelOpts{UseWispsTable: useWisp})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("get labels %s: %w", id, err)
	}
	return out, nil
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) GetLabelsForIssues(ctx context.Context, issueIDs []string) (map[string][]string, error) {
	return u.listBulk(ctx, issueIDs, false)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) GetLabelsForWisps(ctx context.Context, wispIDs []string) (map[string][]string, error) {
	return u.listBulk(ctx, wispIDs, true)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) listBulk(ctx context.Context, ids []string, useWisp bool) (map[string][]string, error) {
	if len(ids) == 0 {
		return map[string][]string{}, nil
	}
	out, err := u.labelRepo.ListByIssueIDs(ctx, ids, LabelOpts{UseWispsTable: useWisp})
	if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped error for the storage root cause
Verify connectivity and migration state of the database
Sync the database if the record may not exist locally yet (bd dolt pull)
Retry — a pure read is safe to retry after transient failures

Example fix

// before
labels, err := store.GetLabels(ctx, id)
if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }
// after
labels, err := store.GetLabels(ctx, id)
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("get labels for %s: %w", id, err) // id included in message already
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// Ensure ID non-empty first; then the error only means storage/read failure.
if id == "" { return nil, fmt.Errorf("empty id") }

Try / catch

labels, err := store.GetLabels(ctx, id)
if err != nil {
	time.Sleep(200 * time.Millisecond)
	labels, err = store.GetLabels(ctx, id) // read is safe to retry
	if err != nil { return nil, fmt.Errorf("get labels %s: %w", id, err) }
}

Prevention

Retry transient read failures with backoff
Keep the local Dolt database in sync (bd dolt pull) before reading
Run migrations so labels tables exist
Include the ID in your own error context for diagnosis

When it happens

Trigger: GetLabels/GetWispLabels on a non-empty ID where labelRepo.List fails: database unavailable, driver error, table missing due to skipped migration, transaction conflict.

Common situations: Dolt remote not pulled / stale database; running commands before migrations created labels tables; transient connectivity loss; querying an ID in the wrong database.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8757865aea2f0a75. Report an issue: GitHub.