gastownhall/beads · error

setting dolt user.email: %w %s

Error message

setting dolt user.email: %w
%s

What it means

bd wraps the failure of the external command `dolt config --global --add user.email <email>` in ensureDoltIdentity (internal/doltserver/doltserver.go:1886). It fires only after setting user.name succeeded (or was attempted), and the message appends dolt's combined output to the exec error. This is the second half of seeding a Dolt committer identity from git config or the beads defaults.

Source

Thrown at internal/doltserver/doltserver.go:1886

	gitName := "beads"
	gitEmail := "beads@localhost"

	if out, err := exec.Command("git", "config", "user.name").Output(); err == nil {
		if name := strings.TrimSpace(string(out)); name != "" {
			gitName = name
		}
	}
	if out, err := exec.Command("git", "config", "user.email").Output(); err == nil {
		if email := strings.TrimSpace(string(out)); email != "" {
			gitEmail = email
		}
	}

	if out, err := exec.Command("dolt", "config", "--global", "--add", "user.name", gitName).CombinedOutput(); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("setting dolt user.name: %w\n%s", err, out)
	}
	if out, err := exec.Command("dolt", "config", "--global", "--add", "user.email", gitEmail).CombinedOutput(); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("setting dolt user.email: %w\n%s", err, out)
	}

	return nil
}

// bdDoltMarker is written after a current bd process creates or acknowledges a
// local Dolt repository. Its absence in an existing .dolt/ directory indicates
// the database was created by a pre-0.56 bd version (which used embedded mode).
// Those databases are incompatible with the current server-only architecture.
const bdDoltMarker = ".bd-dolt-ok"

// MarkDoltDirCompatible writes the canonical bd compatibility marker when
// doltDir contains a local Dolt repository. It no-ops when there is no .dolt/
// directory, which lets server and repair paths call it defensively.
func MarkDoltDirCompatible(doltDir string) error {
	if doltDir == "" {
		return errors.New("dolt directory is required")
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Read dolt's output appended after the wrapped error — it usually names the exact config-file problem.
2. Run `dolt config --global --add user.email "you@example.com"` manually to reproduce and see the raw error.
3. Check disk space/quota on $HOME (`df -h $HOME`) and free space if full.
4. Set both keys explicitly beforehand (`dolt config --global --set user.name ...; dolt config --global --set user.email ...`) so bd skips auto-setup entirely.
5. If the global config file is corrupt, back it up and delete ~/.dolt/config_global.json, then re-run bd.

Example fix

// before: disk full, bd auto-config fails midway
$ bd ready
Error: setting dolt user.email: exit status 1: write error: no space left on device
// after
$ df -h $HOME          # free space or expand volume
$ dolt config --global --set user.name "beads"
$ dolt config --global --set user.email "beads@localhost"
$ bd ready

// Ensure disk space and a complete identity before running bd
[ "$(df --output=avail -B1 "$HOME" | tail -1)" -gt 104857600 ] || { echo "insufficient space in $HOME"; exit 1; }
dolt config --global --get user.email >/dev/null 2>&1 || dolt config --global --set user.email "$(git config user.email || echo beads@localhost)"

// Catch and surface dolt's appended output to the operator
if err := run(); err != nil && strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "setting dolt user.email:") {
    // err text ends with dolt's combined output; log it verbatim for diagnosis
    fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "dolt user.email setup failed:\n"+err.Error())
    os.Exit(1)
}

When it happens

Trigger: dolt global user.name was unset, bd proceeded past the user.name step, then `dolt config --global --add user.email ...` exits non-zero — typical causes: HOME became unwritable between the two calls, a concurrent process locked/rewrote the global config, disk full, or dolt binary vanished from PATH mid-run.

Common situations: Disk quota exceeded on the home volume; parallel bd/dolt processes racing on ~/.dolt/config_global.json; partially corrupted global config after the name write succeeded; CI runners cleaning $HOME mid-job.

Related errors

• setting dolt user.name: %w %s
• dolt version probe failed
• failed to load config: %w
• database config fix not applicable for Dolt backend (data is
• no active beads workspace

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1ba87ef2bf22abc2. Report an issue: GitHub.