tinyhumansai/openhuman · error · SpecError

duplicate issue #${agent.issue}

Error message

duplicate issue #${agent.issue}

What it means

Each agent must own a distinct GitHub issue; a second agent reusing an issue number already in the seenIssue Set throws with the number and path "agents[i].issue". The design is one-issue-per-agent so PR descriptions, status, and completion can be tracked per agent without ambiguity.

Source

Thrown at scripts/agent-batch/lib.mjs:110

    }
    for (const key of REQUIRED_AGENT) {
      if (!(key in agent))
        throw new SpecError(`missing required field "${key}"`, at);
    }
    if (typeof agent.id !== "string" || !/^a\d{2,3}$/.test(agent.id)) {
      throw new SpecError(
        `id must match /^a\\d{2,3}$/ (got "${agent.id}")`,
        `${at}.id`,
      );
    }
    if (seenId.has(agent.id))
      throw new SpecError(`duplicate id "${agent.id}"`, `${at}.id`);
    seenId.add(agent.id);
    if (!Number.isInteger(agent.issue) || agent.issue <= 0) {
      throw new SpecError("issue must be a positive integer", `${at}.issue`);
    }
    if (seenIssue.has(agent.issue)) {
      throw new SpecError(`duplicate issue #${agent.issue}`, `${at}.issue`);
    }
    seenIssue.add(agent.issue);
    if (typeof agent.title !== "string" || agent.title.trim().length === 0) {
      throw new SpecError("title must be a non-empty string", `${at}.title`);
    }
    const m = BRANCH_RE.exec(agent.branch);
    if (!m) {
      throw new SpecError(
        `branch must match cursor/<id>-<issue>-<slug> (got "${agent.branch}")`,
        `${at}.branch`,
      );
    }
    if (m[1] !== agent.id) {
      throw new SpecError(
        `branch id segment "${m[1]}" does not match agent id "${agent.id}"`,
        `${at}.branch`,
      );
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to a221052e0d)

Solutions

  1. Open a separate GitHub issue for the second agent and update its issue field
  2. If the work truly is one issue, merge the two agents into one entry with combined owned_paths
  3. Verify uniqueness: new Set(agents.map(a => a.issue)).size === agents.length

Example fix

// before
{ "id": "a01", "issue": 5312, ... }
{ "id": "a02", "issue": 5312, ... }

// after
{ "id": "a01", "issue": 5312, ... }
{ "id": "a02", "issue": 5313, "branch": "cursor/a02-5313-...", ... }
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const issues = spec.agents.map((a) => a.issue);
if (new Set(issues).size !== issues.length) {
  console.error("each agent needs its own issue number");
  process.exit(1);
}

Try / catch

try {
  validateSpec(spec);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof SpecError && /duplicate issue/.test(e.message)) {
    console.error(`split the work or open a new issue: ${e.message}`);
    process.exit(1);
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Two agent entries both carrying "issue": 5312; a generator assigning the tracking_issue number to every agent; splitting one issue's work across two agents while keeping the same issue field.

Common situations: Copying an agent entry and forgetting to update issue; deciding mid-spec that two agents share one issue — the schema forbids it, so the issue must be split upstream on GitHub first.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of tinyhumansai/openhuman@a221052e0d (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a04193780d18ac01. Report an issue: GitHub.