What causes "The target workspace is no longer available." in stablyai/orca?

Create a fresh workspace for the automation (re-trigger workspace creation rather than reusing).

The target workspace is no longer available.

Error message

The target workspace is no longer available.

What it means

Thrown when an automation run targets an existing workspace (the else-branch) but automation.workspaceId is falsy — the workspace reference is gone, so launchAgentTerminal cannot be called with `id:<workspaceId>`. The workspace was deleted or its ID was never persisted/cleared between sessions.

Source

Thrown at src/main/index.ts:2596

                run,
                repo: target.repo
              })
            })
            terminalHandle = created.startupTerminal?.handle ?? ''
            terminalSessionId = created.startupTerminal?.tabId ?? null
            terminalPaneKey = created.startupTerminal?.paneKey ?? null
            terminalPtyId = created.startupTerminal?.ptyId ?? null
            workspaceId = created.worktree.id
            workspaceDisplayName = created.worktree.displayName ?? null
            if (!terminalHandle) {
              throw new Error(
                created.warning ||
                  'Automation workspace was created, but no agent terminal started.'
              )
            }
          } else {
            if (!automation.workspaceId) {
              throw new Error('The target workspace is no longer available.')
            }
            const terminal = await runtimeService.launchAgentTerminal(
              `id:${automation.workspaceId}`,
              {
                agent: automation.agentId,
                prompt: automation.prompt,
                title: run.title
              }
            )
            terminalHandle = terminal.handle
            terminalSessionId = terminal.tabId ?? null
            terminalPaneKey = terminal.paneKey ?? null
            terminalPtyId = terminal.ptyId ?? null
            workspaceId = terminal.worktreeId
            const worktree = await runtimeService.showManagedWorktree(`id:${workspaceId}`)
            workspaceDisplayName = worktree.displayName ?? null
          }

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

Create a fresh workspace for the automation (re-trigger workspace creation rather than reusing).
If the worktree still exists on disk, re-register it to obtain a workspaceId.
Prevent the race: ensure automation.workspaceId is persisted atomically with workspace creation.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function hasWorkspaceId(automation: { workspaceId?: string | null }): boolean {
  return typeof automation.workspaceId === 'string' && automation.workspaceId.length > 0
}

Type guard

function hasValidWorkspaceId(a: unknown): a is { workspaceId: string } {
  return typeof a === 'object' && a !== null && typeof (a as any).workspaceId === 'string' && (a as any).workspaceId.length > 0
}

Try / catch

if (!automation.workspaceId) {
  // create a fresh workspace instead of failing
  await recreateAutomationWorkspace(automation.id)
} else {
  await launchTerminal(automation)
}

Prevention

Persist automation.workspaceId atomically with workspace creation.
Before reuse, verify the workspace still exists via the runtime service.
Handle out-of-band workspace deletion by clearing workspaceId and forcing recreation.

When it happens

Trigger: Resuming or re-launching an automation run whose workspaceId is null/undefined/empty. Occurs when the worktree was deleted out-of-band, the automation record was partially reset, or the workspace registration failed to persist the ID.

Common situations: User deleted the worktree directory manually; a cleanup/GC pass removed the workspace; the automation was migrated between machines and lost its workspace reference; a crash left the automation record half-written.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/332e24fb5194079e. Report an issue: GitHub.