AIDefenceGate not attached. Call attachGuidance({ aiDefenceG

Error message

AIDefenceGate not attached. Call attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate }) first.

What it means

Thrown by RuvBotGuidanceBridge.evaluateAIDefence(input) when no AIDefenceGate has been provided via attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate }). The bridge wires ruvbot events independently of guidance attachment, so a manual defence evaluation explicitly verifies the gate exists before delegating to evaluateInput() and toGateResult(). It indicates incomplete bridge setup.

Source

Thrown at v3/@claude-flow/guidance/src/ruvbot-integration.ts:716

   */
  disconnect(): void {
    if (!this.ruvbot) return;

    for (const [event, handler] of this.boundHandlers) {
      this.ruvbot.off(event, handler);
    }

    this.boundHandlers.clear();
    this.ruvbot = null;
  }

  /**
   * Evaluate a ruvbot AIDefence result and return a GateResult-compatible
   * decision. Can be called independently of event wiring.
   */
  async evaluateAIDefence(input: string): Promise<GateResult> {
    if (!this.aiDefenceGate) {
      throw new Error(
        'AIDefenceGate not attached. Call attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate }) first.',
      );
    }

    const result = await this.aiDefenceGate.evaluateInput(input);
    return this.aiDefenceGate.toGateResult(result, 'manual-evaluation');
  }

  /**
   * Get the proof chain for a specific session.
   */
  getSessionProofChain(sessionId: string): import('./proof.js').ProofChain | undefined {
    return this.sessionChains.get(sessionId);
  }

  /**
   * Get all active session IDs.
   */

View on GitHub (pinned to fa13ee4ad6)

Solutions

Call bridge.attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate: gate }) once during setup, before any evaluateAIDefence() call
If attachGuidance is optional in your flow, guard evaluation behind a check that guidance was attached
After calling detach() (which nulls references), do not reuse the bridge for evaluation — create and re-attach a fresh bridge

Example fix

// before
const bridge = new RuvBotGuidanceBridge(ruvbot, config);
await bridge.evaluateAIDefence(userInput); // throws: gate not attached

// after
const bridge = new RuvBotGuidanceBridge(ruvbot, config);
bridge.attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate });
await bridge.evaluateAIDefence(userInput);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Single setup path: attach guidance before exposing the bridge
function createBridge(ruvbot: RuvBot, gate: AIDefenceGate, config: RuvBotBridgeConfig) {
  const bridge = new RuvBotGuidanceBridge(ruvbot, config);
  bridge.attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate: gate });
  return bridge;
}

Type guard

// aiDefenceGate is private; track it in your own wrapper
type EvaluableBridge = { evaluateAIDefence(i: string): Promise<GateResult> };
const evaluatable = new WeakSet<object>();
function isEvaluatable(b: object): b is EvaluableBridge {
  return evaluatable.has(b);
}
// after bridge.attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate }): evaluatable.add(bridge);

Try / catch

try {
  const result = await bridge.evaluateAIDefence(input);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes('attachGuidance')) {
    // configuration gap — fail loudly, do not retry
    throw new Error('AIDefenceGate missing on bridge; attachGuidance was skipped', { cause: e });
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Call attachGuidance in the same function that constructs the bridge
After detach(), mark the bridge as unusable for evaluation instead of reusing it
Cover evaluateAIDefence with an integration test that runs the full setup path

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a RuvBotGuidanceBridge around a ruvbot instance (optionally with event wiring) and calling await bridge.evaluateAIDefence(text) before calling bridge.attachGuidance({ aiDefenceGate: gate }), or calling attachGuidance with an object that omits aiDefenceGate.

Common situations: Using the bridge purely for event translation and adding manual input screening later; setup code where attachGuidance is conditional (only when a gate was configured) but evaluateAIDefence is called unconditionally; partial init during application shutdown/re-initialization where detach() has set the gate reference to null.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ruvnet/ruflo@fa13ee4ad6 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c6bd8c87e6480039. Report an issue: GitHub.