plandex-ai/plandex · error

Error marshalling default settings

Error message

Error marshalling default settings

What it means

After loading settings, GetDefaultSettingsHandler serializes them with json.Marshal. If marshaling fails (practically only when PlanSettings contains an unsupported value such as a bad channel, func, or a custom MarshalJSON that errors), the handler logs and returns 500 'Error marshalling default settings'.

Source

Thrown at app/server/handlers/settings.go:245

	auth := Authenticate(w, r, true)
	if auth == nil {
		return
	}

	settings, err := db.GetOrgDefaultSettings(auth.OrgId)

	if err != nil {
		log.Println("Error getting default settings: ", err)
		http.Error(w, "Error getting default settings", http.StatusInternalServerError)
		return
	}

	bytes, err := json.Marshal(settings)

	if err != nil {
		log.Println("Error marshalling default settings: ", err)
		http.Error(w, "Error marshalling default settings", http.StatusInternalServerError)
		return
	}

	w.Write(bytes)

	log.Println("GetDefaultSettingsHandler processed successfully")
}

func UpdateDefaultSettingsHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
	log.Println("Received request for UpdateDefaultSettingsHandler")

	auth := Authenticate(w, r, true)

	if auth == nil {
		return
	}

	var req shared.UpdateSettingsRequest

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Check the server log for 'Error marshalling default settings:' to identify the offending field
2. Audit PlanSettings for unsupported field types (chan, func, cyclic pointers)
3. Ensure server and plandex-shared versions are in sync
4. Add json marshal tests over a freshly loaded PlanSettings fixture
5. Redeploy after fixing the struct

func marshalable(v any) (ok bool) {
    defer func() { if r := recover(); r != nil { ok = false } }()
    _, err := json.Marshal(v)
    return err == nil
}

const res = await api.getDefaultSettings();
try { JSON.parse(res.body); } catch { // treat as server serialization bug
  reportBug('unparseable settings payload'); fallbackToCachedSettings();
}

When it happens

Trigger: GET default settings succeeds at the DB layer but json.Marshal(settings) returns an error, typically from an invalid value inside the PlanSettings struct or a custom MarshalJSON implementation failing.

Common situations: A newly added field in PlanSettings has a type json can't encode; a custom marshaller panics/errs on nil nested pointers after a schema change; version mismatch between server and shared lib structs.

Understand the failure class

Background: json.Marshal / "failed to marshal" errors in Go: why "unsupported type" happens and how to fix it — this error's family across 22 libraries.

Related errors

• Error marshalling branches:
• Error marshalling response:
• Error marshalling invites:
• Error marshalling response
• Error marshalling contexts:

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1644e9ea8a5d7198. Report an issue: GitHub.