What causes "gen exited with status: {}" in nikivdev/code?

Run gen directly with the same prompt/location to see its real error output.

gen exited with status: {}

Error message

gen exited with status: {}

What it means

invoke_gen_capture spawns the gen binary (Binary or repo location) to run the flow prompt and checks the exit status. A non-zero status bails with 'gen exited with status: <status>'. The raw gen output is discarded on failure, so the underlying gen error must be reproduced manually.

Source

Thrown at src/agents.rs:1066

                "run",
                "--cwd",
                &repo.join("packages/opencode").to_string_lossy(),
                "--conditions=browser",
                "src/index.ts",
                "run",
                "--format",
                "json",
                prompt,
            ])
            .env("GEN_MODE", "1")
            .stdin(Stdio::null());
            apply_project_config_env(&mut cmd);
            cmd.output().context("failed to run gen from repo")
        }
    }?;

    if !output.status.success() {
        bail!("gen exited with status: {}", output.status);
    }

    let stdout = String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stdout);
    if let Some(text) = extract_text_from_gen_output(&stdout) {
        return Ok(text);
    }

    let trimmed = stdout.trim();
    if !trimmed.is_empty() {
        return Ok(trimmed.to_string());
    }

    bail!("gen returned no output");
}

fn invoke_gen_capture_streaming(location: &GenLocation, prompt: &str) -> Result<String> {
    let mut cmd = match location {
        GenLocation::Binary(path) => {

View on GitHub (pinned to a747e741ae)

Solutions

Run gen directly with the same prompt/location to see its real error output.
Verify GEN_REPO points to a valid gen checkout or install the binary (`cd <gen-repo> && f install`, or set GEN_REPO per gen_repo_hint()).
Rebuild/update gen (`cargo build` / git pull in the gen repo).
Check env vars injected by apply_project_config_env for anything gen rejects.

Example fix

// before
$ f flow-agent "do thing"
Error: gen exited with status: exit status: 101
// after
$ cd "$GEN_REPO" && git pull && cargo build --release && f install
$ f flow-agent "do thing"   # succeeds

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

[ -n "${GEN_REPO:-}" ] && [ -d "$GEN_REPO/.git" ] && gen --version >/dev/null \
  || { echo "GEN_REPO invalid or gen missing"; exit 1; }

Type guard

fn gen_ready() -> bool {
    std::process::Command::new("gen").arg("--version").output()
        .map(|o| o.status.success()).unwrap_or(false)
}

Try / catch

match invoke_gen_capture(&loc, prompt) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().starts_with("gen exited with status") => {
        eprintln!("gen failed; run gen manually with the same prompt for details.");
        // fix install/auth, then retry
    }
    other => other?,
}

Prevention

Keep GEN_REPO pointing at a valid, up-to-date gen checkout.
Rebuild/reinstall gen after pulling changes.
Verify gen runs the same prompt successfully before blaming flow.
Review project config env vars passed into the gen subprocess.

When it happens

Trigger: gen returns non-zero while executing the flow prompt — bad GEN_REPO checkout, gen build failure, gen-side error processing the prompt, or project-config env vars breaking gen.

Common situations: GEN_REPO env var set to a path that is not a working gen repo; gen binary out of date relative to flow's expectations; network/model-credential failure inside gen; large prompt causing gen to fail.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nikivdev/code@a747e741ae (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/744bd8e38a90e932. Report an issue: GitHub.