What causes "invalid ADO configuration: %w" in gastownhall/beads?

Read the wrapped cause after 'invalid ADO configuration:' — it names the exact field that failed.

invalid ADO configuration: %w

Error message

invalid ADO configuration: %w

What it means

Wraps any error returned by getADOClient(cfg) when constructing the Azure DevOps client for `bd ado projects`. It means the combination of org/URL/PAT settings present is syntactically or semantically invalid (e.g. malformed URL, bad credential encoding), distinct from the earlier 'not configured' checks. The %w chain preserves the underlying cause for inspection.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/ado.go:436

	evt := metrics.NewCommandEvent("ado-projects")
	defer func() {
		if c := metrics.Global(); c != nil {
			c.CloseEventAndAdd(evt)
		}
	}()

	cfg := getADOConfig()
	if cfg.PAT == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("ado.pat not configured: set via 'bd config set ado.pat <token>' or AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT env var")
	}
	if cfg.Org == "" && cfg.URL == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("ado.org not configured: set via 'bd config set ado.org <org>' or AZURE_DEVOPS_ORG env var")
	}

	out := cmd.OutOrStdout()
	client, err := getADOClient(cfg)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid ADO configuration: %w", err)
	}
	ctx := context.Background()

	projects, err := client.ListProjects(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to list projects: %w", err)
	}

	if jsonOutput {
		return outputJSON(projects)
	}

	_, _ = fmt.Fprintln(out, "Azure DevOps Projects")
	_, _ = fmt.Fprintln(out, "=====================")
	for _, p := range projects {
		_, _ = fmt.Fprintf(out, "  %s\n", p.Name)
		if p.Description != "" {
			_, _ = fmt.Fprintf(out, "    %s\n", p.Description)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Read the wrapped cause after 'invalid ADO configuration:' — it names the exact field that failed.
Fix the offending value: `bd config set ado.url https://dev.azure.com/<org>` or re-set the PAT via ado.pat / AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT.
Sanitize the PAT: re-copy it without whitespace/newlines.
If a URL override is set but you intend default Azure DevOps hosting, clear it and rely on ado.org only.
Re-run `bd ado projects` to confirm.

Example fix

// before
ado:
  url: "https:/dev.azure.com/mycompany"  # malformed

// after
$ bd config set ado.url https://dev.azure.com/mycompany

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

u, err := url.Parse(adoURL)
if err != nil || u.Scheme == "" || u.Host == "" {
	return fmt.Errorf("ado.url invalid: %q", adoURL)
}
if pat != "" && strings.TrimSpace(pat) != pat {
	return fmt.Errorf("ado.pat has surrounding whitespace")
}

Type guard

func isValidADOURL(s string) bool {
	u, err := url.Parse(s)
	return err == nil && (u.Scheme == "http" || u.Scheme == "https") && u.Host != ""
}

Try / catch

if err := runADOProjects(cmd, args); err != nil {
	var cfgErr *fmt.Errorf
	if errors.As(err, &cfgErr) && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid ADO configuration") {
		log.Fatalf("fix ado config: %v", err) // cause is wrapped via %w
	}
}

Prevention

Always set URLs via `bd config set`, never hand-edit config files.
Paste PATs without quotes/newlines; validate with a quick curl to the org URL.
Pin a team config template and lint it in CI.

When it happens

Trigger: getADOClient returns a non-nil error: typically a malformed ado.url/ado.baseurl value, an invalid PAT format, or an unsupported proxy/client option derived from the stored config.

Common situations: Hand-edited .beads/config or bd config values containing typos (e.g. 'https:/dev.azure.com'), a PAT pasted with surrounding whitespace or invalid base64, or a config written by an older bd version with fields the client builder rejects.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5b48f3dd3fe193a2. Report an issue: GitHub.