gastownhall/beads · error

querying blocked issues: %w

Error message

querying blocked issues: %w

What it means

findStaleMolecules aggregates stale molecules and needs the set of currently blocked issues to compute what each stale molecule blocks. When the underlying storage query GetBlockedIssues fails (backend/driver error, context cancellation, store not initialized), the error is wrapped with %w and propagated to runMolStale, aborting the command.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/mol_stale.go:142

	fmt.Printf("Total: %d stale", result.TotalCount)
	if result.BlockingCount > 0 {
		fmt.Printf(", %d blocking other work", result.BlockingCount)
	}
	fmt.Println()
}

// findStaleMolecules queries the database for stale molecules
func findStaleMolecules(ctx context.Context, s molReader, blockingOnly, unassignedOnly, showAll bool) (*StaleResult, error) {
	// Get all epics eligible for closure (complete but unclosed)
	epicStatuses, err := s.GetEpicsEligibleForClosure(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("querying epics: %w", err)
	}

	// Get blocked issues to find what each stale molecule is blocking
	blockedIssues, err := s.GetBlockedIssues(ctx, types.WorkFilter{})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("querying blocked issues: %w", err)
	}

	// Build map of issue ID -> what issues it's blocking
	blockingMap := buildBlockingMap(blockedIssues)

	var staleMolecules []*StaleMolecule
	blockingCount := 0

	for _, es := range epicStatuses {
		// Skip if not eligible for close (not all children closed)
		if !es.EligibleForClose {
			continue
		}

		// Skip if no children and not showing all
		if es.TotalChildren == 0 && !showAll {
			continue
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Check database availability and re-run `bd mol stale` (verify with `bd doctor` or a simple `bd list`).
2. Inspect the wrapped cause (%w) printed after 'querying blocked issues:' for the driver-level error and fix that first.
3. If running in proxied-server mode, restart the server process to re-establish the store connection.
4. Re-sync the database (`bd dolt pull`) if corruption or stale refs are suspected.

// Go: check store health before invoking the command
if err := store.HealthCheck(ctx); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("database unavailable, fix storage before `bd mol stale`: %w", err)
}

if _, err := runMolStale(cmd, args); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "querying blocked issues") {
        // inspect wrapped cause, check DB connectivity, retry once
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `bd mol stale` (directly or via runMolStaleProxiedServer) when the underlying store's GetBlockedIssues(ctx, types.WorkFilter{}) call fails — e.g. database unavailable/corrupt, driver error, or context canceled mid-query.

Common situations: Running mol stale against a Dolt database that is offline or unreachable; a partially synced or corrupted database; running the command in proxied-server mode where the backing store connection dropped; Ctrl-C during the query.

Related errors

• querying epics: %w
• reparent: list current parent: %w
• failed to get epics: %w
• failed to batch-fetch child statuses from %s: %w
• failed to batch-fetch epic issues: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/26850cba5c02447e. Report an issue: GitHub.