gastownhall/beads · error

get status: %w

Error message

get status: %w

What it means

Status wraps a failed query "SELECT table_name, staged, status FROM dolt_status" as "get status: <underlying>". The library throws it because reading the Dolt working set (the dolt_status system table) failed at the SQL level before any rows were scanned. Typically the database is not a Dolt database, the working set is unreadable, or the underlying connection/context failed.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/versioncontrolops/version_control.go:20

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"regexp"
	"strings"

	"github.com/steveyegge/beads/internal/storage"
	"github.com/steveyegge/beads/internal/storage/issueops"
)

// validTablePattern matches valid SQL table names (letters, digits, underscores).
var validTablePattern = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*$`)

// Status returns the current Dolt working set status (staged and unstaged changes).
func Status(ctx context.Context, db DBConn) (*storage.Status, error) {
	rows, err := db.QueryContext(ctx, "SELECT table_name, staged, status FROM dolt_status")
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("get status: %w", err)
	}
	defer rows.Close()

	status := &storage.Status{
		Staged:   make([]storage.StatusEntry, 0),
		Unstaged: make([]storage.StatusEntry, 0),
	}

	for rows.Next() {
		var tableName string
		var staged bool
		var statusStr string
		if err := rows.Scan(&tableName, &staged, &statusStr); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("scan status: %w", err)
		}
		entry := storage.StatusEntry{Table: tableName, Status: statusStr}
		if staged {
			status.Staged = append(status.Staged, entry)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Verify the target database is Dolt-initialized (dolt_status exists) — run any Dolt query like SELECT 1 FROM dolt_status LIMIT 1 to confirm.
2. If the working set is corrupt, run the engine's repair path (re-init Dolt in that directory or restore repo_state.json from a backup).
3. Check connection health and retry; cancel/timeout of ctx produces this too.
4. Inspect the wrapped error message for driver-specific causes (unknown table vs. connection refused) and fix accordingly.

Example fix

// before
rows, err := db.QueryContext(ctx, "SELECT table_name, staged, status FROM dolt_status") // plain MySQL db, no dolt_status
// after
// initialize the db as a Dolt database first:
// dolt init  (or ensure the embedded engine opened a dolt-initialized directory)
rows, err := db.QueryContext(ctx, "SELECT table_name, staged, status FROM dolt_status")

// confirm the target is a Dolt database before calling Status
if _, err := db.QueryContext(ctx, "SELECT 1 FROM dolt_status LIMIT 1"); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("not a Dolt-initialized database: %w", err)
}

func isDoltReady(ctx context.Context, db DBConn) bool {
    rows, err := db.QueryContext(ctx, "SELECT 1 FROM dolt_status LIMIT 1")
    if err != nil { return false }
    rows.Close()
    return true
}

st, err := versioncontrolops.Status(ctx, db)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "get status") && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "dolt_status") {
        return fmt.Errorf("database is not Dolt-initialized: %w", err)
    }
    if errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded) { return retryLater }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Status against a database that lacks the dolt_status table (non-Dolt or not a Dolt-initialized schema); the Dolt engine cannot read the working set (corrupt repo_state / working-set file); the context is cancelled or the connection drops mid-query.

Common situations: Pointing bd at a plain MySQL/Dolt-SQL-server database that was never dolt-initialized; running status while another process holds a corrupted working set; stale connection after the embedded engine restarted.

Related errors

• failed to query dolt_status: %w
• descendants: query: %w
• db: ListRemotes: query: %w
• list branches: %w
• query dependency conflicts: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d8eed1103cb59a2d. Report an issue: GitHub.