What causes "--strategy %s contradicts --%s" in gastownhall/beads?

Remove either --strategy or the --ours/--theirs flag so only one mechanism specifies the strategy

--strategy %s contradicts --%s

Error message

--strategy %s contradicts --%s

What it means

resolveStrategy in cmd/bd/conflicts.go builds a single conflict-resolution strategy from multiple flags: --ours and --theirs map directly to versioncontrolops.ConflictStrategyOurs/Theirs, and --strategy <name> is a generic override. If --strategy is set but contradicts the strategy implied by --ours/--theirs, the function refuses to guess and returns this error. It exists to make flag conflicts explicit rather than silently letting the last flag win.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/conflicts.go:672

		total += t.Count
	}
	return total, nil
}

// resolveStrategy reads the strategy from --ours/--theirs/--strategy.
func resolveStrategy() (string, error) {
	picked := ""
	switch {
	case conflictsResolveOurs && conflictsResolveTheirs:
		return "", fmt.Errorf("pass --ours or --theirs, not both")
	case conflictsResolveOurs:
		picked = versioncontrolops.ConflictStrategyOurs
	case conflictsResolveTheirs:
		picked = versioncontrolops.ConflictStrategyTheirs
	}
	if conflictsResolveStrat != "" {
		if picked != "" && picked != conflictsResolveStrat {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("--strategy %s contradicts --%s", conflictsResolveStrat, picked)
		}
		picked = conflictsResolveStrat
	}
	if picked == "" {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("a resolution strategy is required: --ours or --theirs")
	}
	if err := versioncontrolops.ValidateConflictStrategy(picked); err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	return picked, nil
}

// filterShownFields drops the agreeing fields from JSON output unless the
// caller asked for all of them, so a conflict reads as its handful of
// diverged fields rather than the whole row.
func filterShownFields(rows []storage.ConflictRow, allFields bool) []storage.ConflictRow {
	if allFields {
		return rows

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Remove either --strategy or the --ours/--theirs flag so only one mechanism specifies the strategy
Pass the same value to both forms if your tooling requires both (e.g. --theirs --strategy theirs)
Use only --strategy <ours|theirs> as the canonical form going forward

Example fix

// before
bd conflicts resolve --theirs --strategy ours
// after
bd conflicts resolve --strategy theirs

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// validate flags before running bd
ours=""; theirs=""; strat=""
# ... parse flags ...
if [ -n "$strat" ] && { [ -n "$ours" ] || [ -n "$theirs" ]; }; then
  implied=$([ -n "$ours" ] && echo ours || echo theirs)
  [ "$strat" = "$implied" ] || { echo "--strategy $strat contradicts --$implied" >&2; exit 2; }
fi

Try / catch

if err := resolveStrategy(); err != nil {
  if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "contradicts") {
    // surface flag-conflict guidance to the user
  }
  return err
}

Prevention

Use only --strategy as the canonical mechanism in scripts
Never combine --ours/--theirs with --strategy in one invocation
Wrap bd calls in a helper that asserts mutually exclusive flags

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `bd conflicts resolve` with --strategy ours (or theirs) while also passing the opposite explicit flag, e.g. `bd conflicts resolve --theirs --strategy ours`: picked becomes ConflictStrategyTheirs from --theirs, then conflictsResolveStrat ("ours") differs and the error fires.

Common situations: Shell scripts or aliases that hardcode --strategy while a user adds --ours/--theirs on top; documentation drift where older invocations used --ours/--theirs and newer automation uses --strategy; copy-pasted commands combining both spellings.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c13a1f99e92e0098. Report an issue: GitHub.