What causes "hive agent '{}' exited with status {:?}" in nikivdev/code?

Check the hive output printed above the error (stdio is inherited) for the real cause

hive agent '{}' exited with status {:?}

Error message

hive agent '{}' exited with status {:?}

What it means

`run_agent` spawns `hive agent <agent> <prompt>` with inherited stdio and waits via `.status()`. If the hive process exits with a failure code, the function bails with this message naming the agent and the exit status (as `Option<i32>` via `{:?}`). The actual reason for failure must come from hive's own output, which was streamed to the terminal.

Source

Thrown at src/hive.rs:325

/// Run a hive agent with a prompt
pub fn run_agent(agent: &str, prompt: &str) -> Result<()> {
    // Check if hive is available
    if which::which("hive").is_err() {
        anyhow::bail!("hive not found on PATH. Install from https://github.com/example/hive");
    }

    let status = Command::new("hive")
        .arg("agent")
        .arg(agent)
        .arg(prompt)
        .stdin(Stdio::inherit())
        .stdout(Stdio::inherit())
        .stderr(Stdio::inherit())
        .status()
        .context("Failed to run hive")?;

    if !status.success() {
        anyhow::bail!(
            "hive agent '{}' exited with status {:?}",
            agent,
            status.code()
        );
    }

    Ok(())
}

/// Run an agent interactively (prompt via stdin)
pub fn run_agent_interactive(agent: &str) -> Result<()> {
    if which::which("hive").is_err() {
        anyhow::bail!("hive not found on PATH");
    }

    let status = Command::new("hive")
        .arg("agent")
        .arg(agent)

View on GitHub (pinned to a747e741ae)

Solutions

Check the hive output printed above the error (stdio is inherited) for the real cause
Verify the agent name exists: `hive agent <name>` or list available agents
Run the exact command manually to reproduce: `hive agent <agent> "<prompt>"`
If the status shows `None`, the process died by signal — check dmesg/limits (OOM) or rerun

Example fix

// before
hive::run_agent("reviwer", "do the thing")?; // typo'd agent
// after
let agent = "reviewer"; // exact, existing agent name
match hive::run_agent(agent, "do the thing") {
    Err(e) => { eprintln!("agent {agent} failed: {e}"); }
    ok => ok?,
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

let known = ["reviewer", "planner", "deploy-agent"];
anyhow::ensure!(
    known.contains(&agent),
    "unknown hive agent '{}' — check `hive agent --list`",
    agent
);
anyhow::ensure!(hive_available(), "hive not on PATH");

Type guard

null

Try / catch

match hive::run_agent(agent, prompt) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("exited with status") => {
        eprintln!("hive agent failed; its output was streamed above — inspect it");
        if e.to_string().contains("None") {
            eprintln!("process died by signal (killed/OOM/Ctrl-C)");
        }
    }
    r => r?,
}

Prevention

Validate agent names against hive's agent list before invoking
Capture or tee hive output to a log file since the error only carries the exit code
Set retry/backoff for transient hive backend failures
Monitor for signal exits (status None) which indicate kills, not hive errors

When it happens

Trigger: hive exiting non-zero for an unknown agent name, invalid prompt, its own internal error, or being killed by a signal (in which case `status.code()` is `None`, printed as `None`).

Common situations: Passing an agent name that has no corresponding hive agent definition; hive failing authentication or hitting an API rate limit; prompt rejected by hive; process killed by OOM-killer or Ctrl-C resulting in a signal exit.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nikivdev/code@a747e741ae (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3ef5b4c1db624d65. Report an issue: GitHub.