plandex-ai/plandex · warning

context timeout

Error message

context timeout

What it means

During the filepath.WalkDir traversal in GetChildProjectIdsWithPaths, a non-blocking select checks ctx.Done() before each directory visit; if the context has been cancelled or its deadline exceeded, the walk aborts with this sentinel error.

Source

Thrown at app/cli/fs/projects.go:75

					return filepath.SkipDir
				} else {
					return nil
				}
			}

			return err
		}

		if strings.HasPrefix(info.Name(), ".") {
			if info.IsDir() {
				return filepath.SkipDir
			}
			return nil
		}

		select {
		case <-ctx.Done():
			return fmt.Errorf("context timeout")
		default:
		}

		if info.IsDir() && path != Cwd {
			plandexDir := findPlandex(path)
			projectSettingsPath := filepath.Join(plandexDir, "projects-v2.json")
			if _, err := os.Stat(projectSettingsPath); err == nil {
				bytes, err := os.ReadFile(projectSettingsPath)
				if err != nil {
					return fmt.Errorf("error reading projectId file: %s", err)
				}
				var settingsByAccount types.CurrentProjectSettingsByAccount
				err = json.Unmarshal(bytes, &settingsByAccount)

				if err != nil {
					term.OutputErrorAndExit("error unmarshalling projects-v2.json: %v", err)
				}

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Increase the context deadline passed to GetChildProjectIdsWithPaths
2. Exclude heavy directories (vendor, node_modules) from the walk
3. Run in a shallower directory tree or use the partially collected results (the caller returns collected IDs on this sentinel)
4. Ensure the context isn't cancelled prematurely by an upstream timeout

Example fix

// before
ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 2*time.Second)
// after
ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 60*time.Second)
childIds, err := GetChildProjectIdsWithPaths(ctx)

if deadline, ok := ctx.Deadline(); ok && time.Until(deadline) < 30*time.Second {
    ctx, _ = context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), time.Minute) // extend
}

ids, err := GetChildProjectIdsWithPaths(ctx)
if err != nil && err.Error() == "context timeout" {
    ids, err = retryWithLongerTimeout(ctx) // walk is resumable; sentinel already returns partials
}

When it happens

Trigger: The caller-supplied context is cancelled or times out while walking the directory tree looking for nested .plandex/projects-v2.json files.

Common situations: Large/deep directory trees (huge monorepos, node_modules) taking longer than the context deadline; user cancellation; parent command timeout.

Understand the failure class

• Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

Related errors

• context canceled while waiting to retry: %w
• Request was cancelled
• connection to plan stream timed out due to missing heartbeat
• refresh failed - http: %w
• failed to check context conflicts: %v

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9db95cb7f2e5d244. Report an issue: GitHub.