gastownhall/beads · error

gh pr view failed: %s

Error message

gh pr view failed: %s

What it means

Returned when `gh pr view <id> --json state,title` exits non-zero for reasons other than missing CLI or missing PR (cmd/bd/gate.go:1141). gh's raw stderr is embedded so the real cause (auth, permissions, network) is visible.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/gate.go:1141

	}

	// Run: gh pr view <id> --json state,title [--repo <repo>]
	args := []string{"pr", "view", gate.AwaitID, "--json", "state,title"}
	if repo != "" {
		args = append(args, "--repo", repo)
	}
	stdout, stderr, runErr := runGH(args...)
	if runErr != nil {
		// Check if gh CLI is not found
		if strings.Contains(string(stderr), "command not found") ||
			strings.Contains(runErr.Error(), "executable file not found") {
			return false, false, "", fmt.Errorf("gh CLI not installed")
		}
		// Check if PR not found
		if strings.Contains(string(stderr), "not found") || strings.Contains(string(stderr), "Could not resolve") {
			return false, true, "pull request not found", nil
		}
		return false, false, "", fmt.Errorf("gh pr view failed: %s", string(stderr))
	}

	var status ghPRStatus
	if parseErr := json.Unmarshal(stdout, &status); parseErr != nil {
		return false, false, "", fmt.Errorf("failed to parse gh output: %w", parseErr)
	}

	// Evaluate status
	switch status.State {
	case "MERGED":
		return true, false, fmt.Sprintf("PR '%s' was merged", status.Title), nil
	case "CLOSED":
		return false, true, fmt.Sprintf("PR '%s' was closed without merging", status.Title), nil
	case "OPEN":
		return false, false, fmt.Sprintf("PR '%s' is still open", status.Title), nil
	default:
		return false, false, fmt.Sprintf("PR '%s' state: %s", status.Title, status.State), nil
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Read the stderr embedded in the error for gh's actual message
2. Run `gh pr view <number> --repo <owner/repo>` manually to reproduce
3. Refresh credentials (`gh auth login`, rotate GH_TOKEN)
4. Validate the gate's repository metadata slug

gh auth status && gh pr view <number> --repo <owner/repo> --json state

if _, _, _, err := checkGHPR(gate); err != nil && strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "gh pr view failed:") {
    // read embedded stderr; retry transient network/rate-limit errors with backoff
}

When it happens

Trigger: checkGHPRWithRunner invokes `gh pr view` and it fails with stderr lacking 'command not found', 'not found', and 'Could not resolve' — auth failure, rate limit, invalid repo slug, network error.

Common situations: Expired GH_TOKEN, cross-repo PR the token cannot read, GitHub outage or proxy blocks, malformed repo metadata on the gate.

Related errors

• gh run view failed: %s
• failed to query workflow runs: %w
• no runs found for workflow '%s'
• gh CLI not installed
• failed to parse gh output: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/47e383c912bcd58b. Report an issue: GitHub.