thedotmack/claude-mem · error · Error

Failed to clear logs

Error message

Failed to clear logs: ${response.statusText}

What it means

LogsDrawer clears logs by POSTing to /api/logs/clear. If that response is not ok, it throws an Error with response.statusText, surfaced in the drawer's error state. It means the server refused or failed to truncate the log store.

Solutions

  1. POST to /api/logs/clear manually (curl -X POST) and read the status/body to see the server reason
  2. Check filesystem write permissions on the log file and free disk space
  3. Confirm backend version matches the UI (route exists)
  4. After clearing fails, retry; transient file locks may resolve on a second attempt

Example fix

// before
const response = await fetch('/api/logs/clear', { method: 'POST' });
if (!response.ok) {
  throw new Error(`Failed to clear logs: ${response.statusText}`);
}
// after
const response = await fetch('/api/logs/clear', { method: 'POST' });
if (!response.ok) {
  const body = await response.text();
  throw new Error(`Failed to clear logs: ${response.status} ${body}`);
}
setLogs('');
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

const res = await fetch('/api/logs/clear', { method: 'POST' });
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`clear failed: ${res.status}`);

Try / catch

try {
  const res = await fetch('/api/logs/clear', { method: 'POST' });
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Failed to clear logs: ${res.status} ${await res.text()}`);
  setLogs('');
} catch (err) {
  showError(err instanceof Error ? err.message : 'Unknown error');
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: POST /api/logs/clear returns non-ok: server error while deleting/truncating the log file, endpoint missing (404), or write permissions denied on the log file.

Common situations: Log file owned by another user/process or read-only mount; viewer running without the clear route (older backend behind newer UI); disk-full conditions during truncation.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API error: {status}" and "HTTP 401/403/404/429/5xx" errors: non-2xx HTTP responses explained — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@d8bc9755e7 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b820b5182bcc157. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/ui/viewer/components/LogsModal.tsx:148

    } finally {
      setIsLoading(false);
    }
  }, [checkIfAtBottom]);

  useEffect(() => {
    scrollToBottom();
  }, [logs, scrollToBottom]);

  const handleClearLogs = useCallback(async () => {
    if (!confirm('Are you sure you want to clear all logs?')) {
      return;
    }
    setIsLoading(true);
    setError(null);
    try {
      const response = await fetch('/api/logs/clear', { method: 'POST' });
      if (!response.ok) {
        throw new Error(`Failed to clear logs: ${response.statusText}`);
      }
      setLogs('');
    } catch (err) {
      setError(err instanceof Error ? err.message : 'Unknown error');
    } finally {
      setIsLoading(false);
    }
  }, []);

  const handleMouseDown = useCallback((e: React.MouseEvent) => {
    e.preventDefault();
    setIsResizing(true);
    startYRef.current = e.clientY;
    startHeightRef.current = height;
  }, [height]);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!isResizing) return;

View on GitHub (pinned to d8bc9755e7)