What causes "error loading plan: %v" in plandex-ai/plandex?

Read the wrapped child error after 'error loading plan:' to find the root cause

error loading plan: %v

Error message

error loading plan: %v

What it means

Aggregation error in tell_load.go: after launching four parallel loader goroutines (convo/store message, plan summaries, plan subtasks, settings), the parent collects four results from errCh; the first non-nil is reported as 'error loading plan: %v', sent to Sentry-like notify, and pushed to the client as a 500 ApiError on StreamDoneCh. It is the umbrella for any of the child load errors (740-742 etc.).

Source

Thrown at app/server/model/plan/tell_load.go:314

					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))

				active.StreamDoneCh <- &shared.ApiError{
					Type:   shared.ApiErrorTypeOther,
					Status: http.StatusInternalServerError,
					Msg:    fmt.Sprintf("Error loading plan: %v", err),
				}
				return err
			}
		}

		res, err := db.GetCurrentPlanState(db.CurrentPlanStateParams{
			OrgId:    currentOrgId,
			PlanId:   planId,
			Contexts: modelContext,
		})

		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error getting current plan state: %v", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

Read the wrapped child error after 'error loading plan:' to find the root cause
Check the server log lines just before it (the child goroutines log their own errors)
Verify database health and migrations
Retry the plan load once the underlying issue is fixed

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if planId == "" {
    active.StreamDoneCh <- &shared.ApiError{Type: shared.ApiErrorTypeOther, Status: http.StatusBadRequest, Msg: "missing planId"}
    return fmt.Errorf("missing planId")
}

Try / catch

for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
    err = <-errCh
    if err != nil {
        go notify.NotifyErr(notify.SeverityError, fmt.Errorf("error loading plan: %w", err))
        active.StreamDoneCh <- &shared.ApiError{Type: shared.ApiErrorTypeOther, Status: http.StatusInternalServerError, Msg: fmt.Sprintf("Error loading plan: %v", err)}
        return err
    }
}

Prevention

Always send exactly one nil-or-error per loader goroutine on errCh
Log child errors before wrapping so the root cause is traceable
Add DB health monitoring to catch outages early
Consider context cancellation to avoid orphaned goroutines after first error

When it happens

Trigger: Any of the four loader goroutines sends a non-nil error: failed user-message store, GetPlanSummaries error, GetPlanSubtasks error (including recovered panics), or a settings load failure.

Common situations: DB outage during plan load; one of the child queries failing due to schema drift or a race; plan deleted mid-load so a child query fails.

Understand the failure class

Background: Database query failed: Internal Server Error 500s wrapping SQL, Prisma, and connection failures — what to check first — this error's family across 16 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f5db249b1c7dff8d. Report an issue: GitHub.