plandex-ai/plandex · error

error creating main branch: %v

Error message

error creating main branch: %v

What it means

This error wraps a failure from CreateBranch(repo, plan, nil, "main", tx) in CreatePlan (app/server/db/plan_helpers.go:74). Right after the plan row is created, the server must initialize the plan's git repository and create its 'main' branch; any git-level failure (repo init, object writes, or the branch DB row inserted via tx) surfaces here. Failure aborts the surrounding WithTx transaction.

Source

Thrown at app/server/db/plan_helpers.go:74

		)

		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error creating plan: %v", err)
		}

		_, err = tx.Exec("INSERT INTO lockable_plan_ids (plan_id) VALUES ($1)", plan.Id)

		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error inserting lockable plan id: %v", err)
		}

		// the one place where we do this to skip the locking queue
		// ok to cheat this once since we're creating a new plan
		repo := getGitRepo(orgId, plan.Id)
		_, err = CreateBranch(repo, plan, nil, "main", tx)

		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error creating main branch: %v", err)
		}

		log.Println("Created branch main")

		err = InitPlan(orgId, plan.Id)

		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error initializing plan dir: %v", err)
		}

		log.Println("Initialized plan dir")

		return nil
	})

	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Check the wrapped %v message and server logs for the underlying git or filesystem error
2. Verify the plan storage root exists and is writable by the server process (check permissions and free disk space)
3. Delete any stale/partial repo directory for the new plan id, then retry CreatePlan (the DB tx rolled back so a retry is safe)
4. Confirm 'main' is an acceptable branch name in your git configuration (init.defaultBranch interactions) and that the branches table schema is current

Example fix

// before
_, err = CreateBranch(repo, plan, nil, "main", tx)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("error creating main branch: %v", err)
}
// after (clean up stale repo dir before retrying creation)
if err := os.RemoveAll(getPlanDir(orgId, plan.Id)); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("error cleaning stale plan dir: %w", err)
}
_, err = CreateBranch(repo, plan, nil, "main", tx)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("error creating main branch: %w", err)
}

// Go: check the plan storage root is writable and the stale repo doesn't exist before CreatePlan
storageRoot := os.Getenv("PLAN_STORAGE_ROOT")
if fi, err := os.Stat(storageRoot); err != nil || !fi.IsDir() {
    return fmt.Errorf("plan storage root %s missing", storageRoot)
}
probe := filepath.Join(storageRoot, ".write-probe")
if err := os.WriteFile(probe, []byte("ok"), 0o600); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("plan storage root not writable: %w", err)
}
os.Remove(probe)
if free, err := diskFreeBytes(storageRoot); err == nil && free < 100<<20 {
    return fmt.Errorf("insufficient disk space for plan repo")
}

func storageWritable(root string) bool {
    probe := filepath.Join(root, ".probe")
    if err := os.WriteFile(probe, []byte("1"), 0o600); err != nil {
        return false
    }
    os.Remove(probe)
    return true
}

plan, err := db.CreatePlan(ctx, orgId, projectId, userId, name)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error creating main branch") {
        // remove partial repo dir so a retry starts clean
        os.RemoveAll(filepath.Join(storageRoot, "plans", planIdHint))
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("branch init failed, retry after cleanup: %w", err)
    }
    return nil, err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CreatePlan when the plan's git repo directory cannot be created or is corrupted (bad permissions, full disk), when getGitRepo points at a misconfigured PLANCES/organizational storage root, when the 'main' branch already exists in a leftover repo dir, or when the branches DB insert inside CreateBranch fails.

Common situations: Disk full or read-only filesystem on the server volume that stores plan git data, wrong permissions after running the server under a different user, stale plan directories left by a previously failed creation attempt, or a version change that altered the on-disk repo layout.

Related errors

• error getting git root: %s
• error getting files in git repo: %s
• error invalidating conflicted results: %v
• error storing context: %v
• error committing convo message: %v

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d017e28a6f8fd262. Report an issue: GitHub.