What causes "issue %s is not eligible for Tier 1 compaction" in gastownhall/beads?

Check the issue's state/size/compaction history manually to determine why it was rejected

issue %s is not eligible for Tier 1 compaction

Error message

issue %s is not eligible for Tier 1 compaction

What it means

Same policy rejection as the reasoned variant, but CheckEligibility returned eligible=false with an empty reason, so only the generic ineligibility message is produced. The store declined the compaction without explaining why.

Source

Thrown at internal/compact/compactor.go:102

	}, nil
}

// CompactTier1 compacts a single issue at Tier 1 (basic summarization).
func (c *Compactor) CompactTier1(ctx context.Context, issueID string) error {
	if ctx.Err() != nil {
		return ctx.Err()
	}

	// Check eligibility before fetching issue (fail fast)
	eligible, reason, err := c.store.CheckEligibility(ctx, issueID, 1)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to verify eligibility: %w", err)
	}
	if !eligible {
		if reason != "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("issue %s is not eligible for Tier 1 compaction: %s", issueID, reason)
		}
		return fmt.Errorf("issue %s is not eligible for Tier 1 compaction", issueID)
	}

	issue, err := c.store.GetIssue(ctx, issueID)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to fetch issue: %w", err)
	}

	// Calculate original size
	originalSize := len(issue.Description) + len(issue.Design) + len(issue.Notes) + len(issue.AcceptanceCriteria)

	if c.config.DryRun {
		return fmt.Errorf("dry-run: would compact %s (original size: %d bytes)", issueID, originalSize)
	}

	// Get summary from AI
	summary, err := c.summarizer.SummarizeTier1(ctx, issue)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to summarize: %w", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Check the issue's state/size/compaction history manually to determine why it was rejected
Call CheckEligibility directly to confirm the (bool, string) return values
Upgrade or fix the store implementation so it populates the reason string
Treat as a benign skip in batch workflows

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

eligible, reason, err := store.CheckEligibility(ctx, issueID, 1)
if err == nil && !eligible {
    // inspect the issue manually: closed? already compacted? too small?
    iss, _ := store.GetIssue(ctx, issueID)
    log.Printf("skip %s (reason empty, status=%v)", issueID, iss)
}

Try / catch

if err := c.CompactTier1(ctx, id); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "not eligible for Tier 1 compaction") {
        return nil
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Pre-check eligibility in batch scripts so generic rejections are expected
Don't assume the reason will be populated — handle empty reasons in your store
Inspect issue state directly when the store gives no explanation

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CompactTier1 on an issue where store.CheckEligibility(ctx, issueID, 1) returns (false, "", nil) — the default rejection path when the store provides no detailed reason.

Common situations: Storage backends that implement eligibility checks but return no reason string; older store implementations without detailed reason reporting; issue fails a rule the backend does not describe.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4ed1d2ab7c46d696. Report an issue: GitHub.