What causes "server closed the connection before answering" in sinelaw/fresh?

Check whether the editor is still running; restart it if it exited.

server closed the connection before answering

Error message

server closed the connection before answering

What it means

Thrown when the control connection yielded no frames within the timeout (recv_within returned None), i.e. the server closed the connection before delivering a ScriptResult or Error. It indicates the editor dropped the client mid-request rather than answering it.

Solutions

Check whether the editor is still running; restart it if it exited.
Retry the command once the editor is confirmed alive.
Look at the editor's logs/stderr for a panic around the time of the request.
Reduce script complexity or split long operations to avoid editor-side crashes.

Example fix

// before
fresh --cmd quit &  fresh --cmd split right   # quit tears down conn mid-request
// after
fresh --cmd split right; fresh --cmd quit

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// ensure the editor is reachable before each submission
const { execSync } = require('child_process');
function alive(session) {
  try { execSync(`pgrep -f 'fresh.*${session}'`, { stdio: 'ignore' }); return true; }
  catch { return false; }
}
if (!alive(process.env.FRESH_SESSION)) { console.error('editor not running; refusing to send'); process.exit(1); }

Try / catch

// bash
for i in 1 2 3; do
  fresh --cmd split right && break
  rc=$?
  if [ $rc -ne 0 ]; then sleep 1; pgrep -f 'fresh' >/dev/null || { echo 'editor died'; exit 1; }; fi
done

Prevention

Don't send commands concurrently with quit/close operations.
Retry idempotent commands once on connection drops.
Watch editor logs for panics that tear down the command channel.
Keep scripts short; long scripts increase the window for editor exit mid-request.

When it happens

Trigger: Editor process exiting/crashing while a --cmd/script request is in flight; the command channel being shut down; an editor-side panic tearing down the connection before a reply is sent.

Common situations: Editor quitting concurrently with the command; long-running script triggering a crash; editor killed by OOM or user close during the request; stale socket briefly connecting before teardown completes.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of sinelaw/fresh@67894ca546 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b9dce27eedf56bb. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/fresh-editor/src/main.rs:3691

    }
    Ok(CmdConnection { conn, reader })
}

/// Read control replies until a `ScriptResult` arrives (or an error/EOF/timeout).
/// Returns `(ok, error, output)`.
fn read_script_result(
    conn: &mut CmdConnection,
    timeout: std::time::Duration,
) -> AnyhowResult<(bool, Option<String>, Option<String>)> {
    use fresh::server::protocol::ServerControl;
    loop {
        match conn.recv_within(timeout)? {
            Some(ServerControl::ScriptResult { ok, error, output }) => {
                return Ok((ok, error, output))
            }
            Some(ServerControl::Error { message }) => anyhow::bail!("server error: {}", message),
            Some(_) => continue,
            None => anyhow::bail!("server closed the connection before answering"),
        }
    }
}

/// Dispatch a `--cmd cmd ...` / `--cmd split ...` / `--cmd workspace ...` /
/// `--cmd agent ...` invocation against a running editor. `tokens` is the full
/// `--cmd` vector (leading verb included).
fn run_cmd_command(tokens: &[&str]) -> AnyhowResult<()> {
    let (session, rest) = extract_session_flag(tokens);
    let session = session.as_deref();

    match rest.first().copied() {
        Some("script") => {
            match &rest[1..] {
                ["run", from @ ..] => script_run(session, from),
                ["check", from @ ..] => script_check(from),
                ["api", query, flags @ ..] => script_api(query, flags),
                ["api"] => {

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