gastownhall/beads · error · storage.ErrValidation

%w: status value of type %T is neither a string nor a types.

Error message

%w: status value of type %T is neither a string nor a types.Status

What it means

CrossesIntoDoneCategoryInTx received a status value that is neither a string nor a types.Status, so it cannot determine the status's reopen category. The error wraps storage.ErrValidation and reports the offending Go type via %T.

Source

Thrown at internal/storage/issueops/update.go:306

// a false. Both write funnels ask this question to decide whether close policy
// applies, so answering "no crossing" for a value nobody can read would let an
// in-process caller that got the transport wrong land status='closed' with the
// policy gate skipped — on an issue with open children, no less. Refusing here
// gives a mis-typed status the same fail-loud handling the mis-typed override
// key already gets (see PopForceClosePolicy).
func CrossesIntoDoneCategoryInTx(ctx context.Context, tx DBTX, oldStatus types.Status, updates map[string]interface{}) (bool, error) {
	rawStatus, hasStatus := updates["status"]
	if !hasStatus {
		return false, nil
	}
	var newStatus types.Status
	switch value := rawStatus.(type) {
	case string:
		newStatus = types.Status(value)
	case types.Status:
		newStatus = value
	default:
		return false, fmt.Errorf("%w: status value of type %T is neither a string nor a types.Status", storage.ErrValidation, rawStatus)
	}

	newCategory, err := ReopenCategoryInTx(ctx, tx, newStatus)
	if err != nil {
		return false, err
	}
	if newCategory != types.CategoryDone {
		return false, nil
	}
	oldCategory, err := ReopenCategoryInTx(ctx, tx, oldStatus)
	if err != nil {
		return false, err
	}
	return oldCategory != types.CategoryDone, nil
}

// UpdateResult holds the result of an UpdateIssueInTx call.
type UpdateResult struct {

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

Cast status to string or types.Status before placing it in the updates map.
If the value may be absent, only set updates["status"] when it is a valid non-empty string.
Validate status against types.Status values before calling update.

Example fix

// before
updates["status"] = someInterfaceValue
// after
s, ok := someInterfaceValue.(string)
if !ok {
    return fmt.Errorf("bad status type %T", someInterfaceValue)
}
updates["status"] = types.Status(s)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

v, ok := updates["status"]
if ok {
    if _, isStr := v.(string); !isStr {
        if _, isStatus := v.(types.Status); !isStatus {
            return fmt.Errorf("status must be string or types.Status, got %T", v)
        }
    }
}

Type guard

func validStatusValue(v interface{}) (types.Status, bool) {
    switch s := v.(type) {
    case string:
        return types.Status(s), true
    case types.Status:
        return s, true
    }
    return "", false
}

Try / catch

if _, err := storage.UpdateIssue(ctx, id, updates, actor); err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, storage.ErrValidation) && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "neither a string nor a types.Status") {
        return fmt.Errorf("bad status in update map: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Build update maps with typed literals, not decoded interface{} values.
Coerce JSON-decoded values (float64/interface{}) to string before storing status.
Centralize update-map construction in one validated helper.
Add a unit test that every status key is string or types.Status.

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a non-string updates["status"] into updateIssueInTx — e.g. nil, an int, a fmt.Stringer, *types.Status pointer, or a custom type — from code constructing the update map programmatically.

Common situations: JSON unmarshaling into interface{} producing float64 or nil for status; reflection-driven updaters passing typed enums from other packages; a refactor changing types.Status that leaves pointers or wrapper types in the map.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2178e486f77e23fb. Report an issue: GitHub.