gastownhall/beads · error

list remotes: %w

Error message

list remotes: %w

What it means

ListRemotes queries the Dolt system table dolt_remotes to return all configured remotes (name and URL). This error wraps any failure of that SQL query — typically because the connection is not a Dolt database/session, the dolt_remotes table is unavailable in the current Dolt version, or the underlying connection/transport failed. It is thrown so callers get a single wrapped error identifying the 'list remotes' step.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/versioncontrolops/remotes.go:14

package versioncontrolops

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

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

// ListRemotes returns all configured Dolt remotes (name and URL).
func ListRemotes(ctx context.Context, db DBConn) ([]storage.RemoteInfo, error) {
	rows, err := db.QueryContext(ctx, "SELECT name, url FROM dolt_remotes")
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("list remotes: %w", err)
	}
	defer rows.Close()

	var remotes []storage.RemoteInfo
	for rows.Next() {
		var r storage.RemoteInfo
		if err := rows.Scan(&r.Name, &r.URL); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("scan remote: %w", err)
		}
		remotes = append(remotes, r)
	}
	return remotes, rows.Err()
}

// RemoveRemote removes a configured Dolt remote.
func RemoveRemote(ctx context.Context, db DBConn, name string) error {
	if _, err := db.ExecContext(ctx, "CALL DOLT_REMOTE('remove', ?)", name); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("remove remote %s: %w", name, err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Verify the DBConn points at a running Dolt database (test with SELECT 1 and a Dolt version query)
2. Check the Dolt server/engine is up and the DSN/addr is correct; restart if needed
3. Confirm the Dolt version supports dolt_remotes (upgrade if older)
4. Inspect the wrapped error with errors.Unwrap/errors.As for driver-level detail (timeout vs refused)
5. Retry with a fresh context if the cause was deadline exceeded

Example fix

// before
remotes, err := versioncontrolops.ListRemotes(ctx, db)
if err != nil {
	return err
}
// after
remotes, err := versioncontrolops.ListRemotes(ctx, db)
if err != nil {
	if ctx.Err() != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("list remotes canceled: %w", ctx.Err())
	}
	return fmt.Errorf("list remotes: %w", err)
}

// Ensure the handle is a live Dolt connection before calling
if err := db.PingContext(ctx); err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("dolt unavailable: %w", err)
}

func isContextErr(err error) bool {
	return errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded) || errors.Is(err, context.Canceled)
}

remotes, err := versioncontrolops.ListRemotes(ctx, db)
if err != nil {
	if isContextErr(err) {
		return fmt.Errorf("list remotes canceled/timed out: %w", err)
	}
	return fmt.Errorf("list remotes: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ListRemotes(ctx, db) when db.QueryContext(ctx, "SELECT name, url FROM dolt_remotes") fails: connection refused/closed, non-Dolt driver, unknown table (older Dolt or non-dolt schema), or context cancellation/timeout.

Common situations: Database not started or wrong DSN; running against a MySQL/SQLite handle instead of Dolt; Dolt version too old to expose dolt_remotes; network drop to a remote Dolt server; ctx deadline exceeded during a slow query.

Related errors

• failed to query cross-table duplicates: %w
• query cross-table duplicates: %w
• ErrTransaction
• ErrQuery
• ErrScan

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d03eaa301820a2bf. Report an issue: GitHub.