What causes "remove labels: %s: %w" in gastownhall/beads?

Inspect the wrapped error for the root cause (driver, constraint, not-found)

remove labels: %s: %w

Error message

remove labels: %s: %w

What it means

Wraps an error from labelRepo.Delete while removing one label in removeMany (RemoveLabels / RemoveWispLabels). The failing label is named in the message. Because removal proceeds label-by-label, earlier successful deletions are not rolled back, so the batch can end partially applied.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/domain/label.go:135

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) RemoveLabels(ctx context.Context, issueID string, labels []string, actor string) error {
	return u.removeMany(ctx, issueID, labels, actor, false)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) RemoveWispLabels(ctx context.Context, wispID string, labels []string, actor string) error {
	return u.removeMany(ctx, wispID, labels, actor, true)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) removeMany(ctx context.Context, id string, labels []string, actor string, useWisp bool) error {
	if id == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("remove labels: id must not be empty")
	}
	opts := LabelOpts{UseWispsTable: useWisp}
	for _, label := range labels {
		if label == "" {
			continue
		}
		if err := u.labelRepo.Delete(ctx, id, label, actor, opts); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("remove labels: %s: %w", label, err)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) SetLabels(ctx context.Context, issueID string, labels []string, actor string) error {
	return u.setMany(ctx, issueID, labels, actor, false)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) SetWispLabels(ctx context.Context, wispID string, labels []string, actor string) error {
	return u.setMany(ctx, wispID, labels, actor, true)
}

func (u *labelUseCaseImpl) setMany(ctx context.Context, id string, labels []string, actor string, useWisp bool) error {
	if id == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("set labels: id must not be empty")
	}
	opts := LabelOpts{UseWispsTable: useWisp}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped error for the root cause (driver, constraint, not-found)
Re-list labels (GetLabels) to see the post-failure state and reconcile
Retry idempotently: Delete of an already-removed label can be treated as success by filtering labels from GetLabels output first
Check for concurrent writers if errors appear intermittently

Example fix

// before
store.RemoveLabels(ctx, id, labels, actor) // may partially fail
// after
current, err := store.GetLabels(ctx, id)
if err != nil { return err }
var want []string
for _, l := range labels {
	if slices.Contains(current, l) { want = append(want, l) }
}
return store.RemoveLabels(ctx, id, want, actor)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

current, err := store.GetLabels(ctx, id)
if err != nil { return err }
want := slices.DeleteFunc(slices.Clone(labels), func(l string) bool {
	return !slices.Contains(current, l)
})

Try / catch

if err := store.RemoveLabels(ctx, id, labels, actor); err != nil {
	log.Printf("label removal partially failed on %s: %v", id, err)
	// reconcile
	cur, gerr := store.GetLabels(ctx, id)
	if gerr != nil { return gerr }
	log.Printf("remaining labels: %v", cur)
	return err
}

Prevention

Only request removal of labels that are actually present (list first)
Treat removal as idempotent and safe to retry
Serialize concurrent writers on the same issue
Reconcile state after partial batch failures

When it happens

Trigger: RemoveLabels/RemoveWispLabels where labelRepo.Delete fails: storage driver error, record missing, constraint or permissions issue, or the underlying row was concurrently deleted.

Common situations: Concurrent agents mutating the same issue's labels; database connectivity drops mid-loop; removing labels from a nonexistent or cross-database ID; Dolt transaction conflicts.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8161c4e258f77910. Report an issue: GitHub.