plandex-ai/plandex · error

failed to set plan status to describing: %v

Error message

failed to set plan status to describing: %v

What it means

In handleStreamFinished (tell_stream_finish.go), after the model stream ends the code flushes the stream buffer and calls db.SetPlanStatus(planId, branch, PlanStatusDescribing, ""). If that status update fails, the error 'failed to set plan status to describing: %v' is passed to state.onError with storeDesc=true, aborting the finish sequence.

Source

Thrown at app/server/model/plan/tell_stream_finish.go:64

			shouldReturn:           false,
		}
	}

	active := state.activePlan

	time.Sleep(30 * time.Millisecond)
	active.FlushStreamBuffer()
	time.Sleep(100 * time.Millisecond)

	active.Stream(shared.StreamMessage{
		Type: shared.StreamMessageDescribing,
	})
	active.FlushStreamBuffer()

	err = db.SetPlanStatus(planId, branch, shared.PlanStatusDescribing, "")
	if err != nil {
		res := state.onError(onErrorParams{
			streamErr: fmt.Errorf("failed to set plan status to describing: %v", err),
			storeDesc: true,
		})

		return handleStreamFinishedResult{
			shouldContinueMainLoop: res.shouldContinueMainLoop,
			shouldReturn:           res.shouldReturn,
		}
	}

	autoLoadContextResult := state.checkAutoLoadContext()
	checkNewSubtasksResult := state.checkNewSubtasks()

	hasExplicitTasks := checkNewSubtasksResult.hasExplicitTasks
	addedSubtasks := checkNewSubtasksResult.newSubtasks

	checkRemoveSubtasksResult := state.checkRemoveSubtasks()

	removedSubtasks := checkRemoveSubtasksResult.removedSubtasks

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Check the wrapped DB error in the log to distinguish connectivity vs not-found
2. Verify the plan still exists for the given (planId, branch)
3. Confirm DB health and retry the status transition
4. Ensure earlier steps didn't already move the plan past the describing status

Example fix

// before
err = db.SetPlanStatus(planId, branch, shared.PlanStatusDescribing, "")
if err != nil {
    res := state.onError(onErrorParams{
        streamErr: fmt.Errorf("failed to set plan status to describing: %v", err),
        storeDesc: true,
    })
// after
err = db.SetPlanStatus(planId, branch, shared.PlanStatusDescribing, "")
if err != nil {
    if backoffErr := retryWithBackoff(3, func() error {
        return db.SetPlanStatus(planId, branch, shared.PlanStatusDescribing, "")
    }); backoffErr != nil {
        res := state.onError(onErrorParams{
            streamErr: fmt.Errorf("failed to set plan status to describing: %w", backoffErr),
            storeDesc: true,
        })
    }
}

if GetActivePlan(planId, branch) == nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("cannot set status: plan %s not active on branch %s", planId, branch)
}
if err := db.Ping(); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("database unreachable: %w", err)
}

err = db.SetPlanStatus(planId, branch, shared.PlanStatusDescribing, "")
if err != nil {
    res := state.onError(onErrorParams{
        streamErr: fmt.Errorf("failed to set plan status to describing: %w", err),
        storeDesc: true,
    })
}

When it happens

Trigger: SetPlanStatus returns an error: DB connection failure, plan row missing for (planId, branch), optimistic-concurrency/conflict on the status column, or schema mismatch.

Common situations: Postgres briefly unavailable right when the stream completes; plan deleted while the model was still streaming; branch mismatch causing zero rows updated and an error return.

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

• Error setting plan status to replying: %v
• error starting stream UI: %v
• error invalidating conflicted results: %v
• error adding plan context tokens: %v
• error adding convo tokens: %v

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dc69c413e3870dc5. Report an issue: GitHub.