What causes "exited with {status}" in jdx/mise?

Run the description command manually in a shell and inspect its exit code and output.

exited with {status}

Error message

exited with {status}

What it means

Thrown by `run_with_limits` when the description command's shell exits with a non-success status. The library surfaces the raw exit status in the message so the caller knows the underlying command failed rather than the harness.

Source

Thrown at src/system/history/describe_command.rs:181

            // with the last writer of the pipe, so it is not waited for
            active.0.kill();
            let _ = child.kill();
            let _ = child.wait();
            bail!("took longer than {}s", timeout.as_secs());
        }
        std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(100));
    };
    // a descendant that outlived the shell and kept the pipe is not the
    // shell's answer: the output is waited for a moment, not forever
    let Ok(output) = receiver.recv_timeout(output_grace) else {
        active.0.kill();
        bail!("a process it started kept its output open");
    };
    if output.len() > DIFF_LIMIT {
        bail!("description output exceeded {} bytes", DIFF_LIMIT);
    }
    if !status.success() {
        bail!("exited with {status}");
    }
    let Some(line) = first_line(&output) else {
        return Ok(None);
    };
    annotate(
        store,
        entry,
        Annotation {
            description: Some(line.clone()),
            description_source: Some(DescriptionSource::Command),
            labels: None,
            updated_at: store::now_rfc3339(),
        },
    )?;
    Ok(Some(line))
}

/// The first non-empty line, trimmed, cut at the limit.

View on GitHub (pinned to afd2eddd3a)

Solutions

Run the description command manually in a shell and inspect its exit code and output.
Fix the failing command/script so it exits 0 on the expected path.
Guard optional steps so they don't fail the script (`cmd || true`) when failure is acceptable.
Check the message's status value: 127 = command not found, 126 = not executable, 1 = script error.

Example fix

// before
fetch-remote-state --strict
// after
fetch-remote-state --strict || echo "fetch unavailable"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// my-description-command && echo ok || echo "exit=$?"

Try / catch

// match run_with_limits(...) {
//     Err(e) if e.message().starts_with("exited with") => {
//         // surface the status to the user; the command itself failed
//     }
//     other => other?,
// }

Prevention

Test every hook/description command manually before enrolling it.
Add `set -e`-safe guards (`|| true`) around optional steps.
Reference tools by absolute path to avoid exit 127.

When it happens

Trigger: Any description/annotation command whose shell returns a nonzero exit code — syntax error in the script, failing subcommand, `set -e` aborting mid-script — detected by `if !status.success()` after output collection completes.

Common situations: Typos in hook scripts, missing tools referenced by the command (exit 127), permission errors on files the command touches, or scripts that deliberately fail on some hosts.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jdx/mise@afd2eddd3a (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/196379bf9b267b9c. Report an issue: GitHub.