gastownhall/beads · error

invalid created time: %w

Error message

invalid created time: %w

What it means

This wraps a failure from parseTimeValue while evaluating a `created` comparison: the value could not be parsed as a relative time (e.g. 7d, 24h, yesterday) or an absolute timestamp. The underlying parse error is preserved via %w so the root cause (unknown format, bad duration suffix) is visible in the wrapped chain.

Source

Thrown at internal/query/evaluator.go:335

		filter.EmptyDescription = true
	} else {
		filter.DescriptionContains = comp.Value
	}
	return nil
}

func (e *Evaluator) applyNotesFilter(comp *ComparisonNode, filter *types.IssueFilter) error {
	if comp.Op != OpEquals {
		return fmt.Errorf("notes only supports = operator")
	}
	filter.NotesContains = comp.Value
	return nil
}

func (e *Evaluator) applyCreatedFilter(comp *ComparisonNode, filter *types.IssueFilter) error {
	t, err := e.parseTimeValue(comp)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid created time: %w", err)
	}
	switch comp.Op {
	case OpEquals:
		// For equals, set both before and after to bracket the day
		dayStart := time.Date(t.Year(), t.Month(), t.Day(), 0, 0, 0, 0, t.Location())
		dayEnd := dayStart.Add(24 * time.Hour)
		filter.CreatedAfter = &dayStart
		filter.CreatedBefore = &dayEnd
	case OpGreater:
		filter.CreatedAfter = &t
	case OpGreaterEq:
		filter.CreatedAfter = &t
	case OpLess:
		filter.CreatedBefore = &t
	case OpLessEq:
		endOfDay := time.Date(t.Year(), t.Month(), t.Day(), 23, 59, 59, 999999999, t.Location())
		filter.CreatedBefore = &endOfDay
	default:

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Use a supported relative duration: `created > 7d`, `created < 24h`
2. Use an absolute timestamp in a format ParseRelativeTime accepts (e.g. RFC3339 / `2026-08-30`)
3. Read the wrapped %w cause in the error chain to see the exact parse failure and correct the value

Example fix

// before
bd list 'created > 7 days'
// after
bd list 'created > 7d'

// Validate the created value parses before running the query
import "time"
func validCreatedValue(v string) bool {
	if regexp.MustCompile(`^\d+[dhmsw]$`).MatchString(v) {
		return true // duration form like 7d, 24h
	}
	_, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, v)
	return err == nil
}
if !validCreatedValue(value) { return fmt.Errorf("bad created value: %q", value) }

func isParseableTime(v string) bool {
	_, err := timeparsing.ParseRelativeTime(v, time.Now())
	return err == nil
}

if err := eval.Eval(node); err != nil {
	var pe *time.ParseError
	if errors.As(err, &pe) || strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid created time") {
		// correct the date/duration value and retry
	}
}

When it happens

Trigger: Queries like `created = 7x`, `created > tomorrowish`, `created < 2026-13-45`, or any unparseable value after `created`; parseTimeValue dispatches to parseDurationAgo for duration tokens or timeparsing.ParseRelativeTime otherwise.

Common situations: Typos in relative dates (`created > 7days` vs `7d`); locale-formatted dates; misspelled keywords like `last week` when only compact forms are supported; scripts interpolating empty or malformed date strings.

Related errors

• invalid updated time: %w
• invalid closed time: %w
• created does not support %s operator
• ErrQuery
• failed to search issues: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/eeb6b1a625e4d2dd. Report an issue: GitHub.