What causes "error getting plan subtasks: %v %s" in plandex-ai/plandex?

Read the appended stack trace in the error/log to find the panicking line

error getting plan subtasks: %v %s

Error message

error getting plan subtasks: %v
%s

What it means

This error is the panic-recovery path of the goroutine that calls db.GetPlanSubtasks(auth.OrgId, planId) in tell_load.go. If the goroutine panics (nil pointer, index out of range, nil DB handle), the deferred recover() logs the stack and sends 'error getting plan subtasks: <panic>\n<stack trace>' to errCh. Unlike the non-panic variant (index 742), it includes the full debug.Stack().

Source

Thrown at app/server/model/plan/tell_load.go:296

				err := <-innerErrCh
				if err != nil {
					errCh <- err
					return
				}
			}

			if promptMsg != nil {
				convo = append(convo, promptMsg)
			}

			errCh <- nil
		}()

		go func() {
			defer func() {
				if r := recover(); r != nil {
					log.Printf("panic in getPlanSubtasks: %v\n%s", r, debug.Stack())
					errCh <- fmt.Errorf("error getting plan subtasks: %v\n%s", r, debug.Stack())
					runtime.Goexit() // don't allow outer function to continue and double-send to channel
				}
			}()

			res, err := db.GetPlanSubtasks(auth.OrgId, planId)
			if err != nil {
				log.Printf("Error getting plan subtasks: %v\n", err)
				errCh <- fmt.Errorf("error getting plan subtasks: %v", err)
				return
			}
			subtasks = res
			errCh <- nil
		}()

		for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
			err = <-errCh
			if err != nil {
				go notify.NotifyErr(notify.SeverityError, fmt.Errorf("error loading plan: %v", err))

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

Read the appended stack trace in the error/log to find the panicking line
Fix the nil/race condition indicated by the stack
Ensure auth.OrgId and planId are validated non-empty before load
Check for concurrent writes to shared state from the parallel loader goroutines

Example fix

// before
go func() {
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            errCh <- fmt.Errorf("error getting plan subtasks: %v\n%s", r, debug.Stack())
            runtime.Goexit()
        }
    }()
    res, err := db.GetPlanSubtasks(auth.OrgId, planId)
// after
if auth == nil || auth.OrgId == "" || planId == "" {
    errCh <- fmt.Errorf("invalid auth or planId for subtasks")
    return
}
go func() {
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            errCh <- fmt.Errorf("error getting plan subtasks: %v\n%s", r, debug.Stack())
            runtime.Goexit()
        }
    }()
    res, err := db.GetPlanSubtasks(auth.OrgId, planId)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if auth == nil || auth.OrgId == "" || planId == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("missing orgId or planId for subtask load")
}

Type guard

if db == nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("db handle not initialized")
}

Try / catch

defer func() {
    if r := recover(); r != nil {
        log.Printf("panic in getPlanSubtasks: %v\n%s", r, debug.Stack())
        errCh <- fmt.Errorf("error getting plan subtasks: %v\n%s", r, debug.Stack())
        runtime.Goexit()
    }
}()

Prevention

Keep goroutines free of shared mutable state or guard it with mutexes
Always recover in loader goroutines and send the error on the channel
Initialize DB clients before spawning loaders
Audit nil-dereference risks in result-mapping code

When it happens

Trigger: A runtime panic inside the getPlanSubtasks goroutine: nil auth or db handle, nil map access while building subtask results, or a panic propagated from the DB driver layer.

Common situations: Race on shared state during plan load, DB client initialized lazily and still nil, a driver bug triggered by malformed orgId/planId values.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/03b6c4d8246d5fce. Report an issue: GitHub.