thedotmack/claude-mem · error

ActiveServerQueueManager requires…

Error message

ActiveServerQueueManager requires CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE=bullmq (got ${config.engine}); do not instantiate when bullmq is not selected.

What it means

ActiveServerQueueManager only supports the BullMQ queue engine. Its constructor validates config.engine and refuses to instantiate when CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE is anything other than 'bullmq', since the Redis/BullMQ queue stack cannot run under other engines.

Solutions

1. Set CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE=bullmq in the server environment
2. Guard construction: only build ActiveServerQueueManager when the resolved config.engine === 'bullmq'
3. Fix the engine string if it was misspelled (must be exactly 'bullmq')

Example fix

// before
const manager = new ActiveServerQueueManager(config); // throws when engine !== 'bullmq'
// after
if (config.engine !== 'bullmq') { throw new Error('server queue requires CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE=bullmq'); }
const manager = new ActiveServerQueueManager(config);

if (config.engine !== 'bullmq') {
  throw new Error(`server queue stack requires bullmq, got ${config.engine}`);
}
const manager = new ActiveServerQueueManager(config);

function isBullMqConfig(c: RedisQueueConfig): c is RedisQueueConfig & { engine: 'bullmq' } {
  return c.engine === 'bullmq';
}

try {
  manager = new ActiveServerQueueManager(config);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes('CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE=bullmq')) {
    throw new Error('Enable bullmq before using the server queue manager');
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing new ActiveServerQueueManager(config) where config.engine is not 'bullmq' — e.g. the config was built from CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE=inline or a typo like 'bullMQ'.

Common situations: Deploying the server with a queue engine env var left at a non-BullMQ default; refactored code that instantiates the manager unconditionally instead of checking engine first; typos in the engine value.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE is not "bullmq"
• BullMQ re-enqueue failed (will reconcile on startup)
• CLAUDE_MEM_TELEGRAM_WRAPUP_ROUTES must be a JSON object
• Corrupt JSON file, refusing to overwrite
• Empty observation response, leaving queue intact

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@d8bc9755e7 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/88e9e8118c0d8325. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/server/runtime/ActiveServerQueueManager.ts:40

// This boundary intentionally does not start any Worker processors here.
// Phase 4+ wires processors that consume the queues, calling
// `start(kind, processor)` once provider generation is ready. Until then,
// the queues exist as transports for `enqueueOutbox` to publish into.

const QUEUE_KINDS: ServerGenerationJobKind[] = ['event', 'summary'];

export class ActiveServerQueueManager implements ServerQueueManager {
  readonly kind = 'queue-manager' as const;

  private readonly queues: Map<ServerGenerationJobKind, ServerJobQueue<ServerGenerationJobPayload>>;
  private closed = false;

  constructor(
    private readonly config: RedisQueueConfig,
    queues?: Map<ServerGenerationJobKind, ServerJobQueue<ServerGenerationJobPayload>>,
  ) {
    if (config.engine !== 'bullmq') {
      throw new Error(
        `ActiveServerQueueManager requires CLAUDE_MEM_QUEUE_ENGINE=bullmq (got ${config.engine}); ` +
          'do not instantiate when bullmq is not selected.',
      );
    }
    this.queues = queues ?? this.buildQueues(config);
  }

  getQueue(kind: ServerGenerationJobKind): ServerJobQueue<ServerGenerationJobPayload> {
    const queue = this.queues.get(kind);
    if (!queue) {
      throw new Error(`unknown server generation job kind: ${kind}`);
    }
    return queue;
  }

  start(kind: ServerGenerationJobKind, processor: Processor<ServerGenerationJobPayload>): void {
    this.getQueue(kind).start(processor);
  }

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