wavetermdev/waveterm · error

error creating tab: %w

Error message

error creating tab: %w

What it means

CreateTab is the RPC service wrapper around wcore.CreateTab, which inserts a new Tab object into the workspace and persists it. When the core creation fails for any reason (bad workspace id, DB error, missing workspace), the error is wrapped with "error creating tab: %w" and returned to the RPC caller. The %w wrapping preserves the underlying cause for errors.Is/As inspection.

Source

Thrown at pkg/service/workspaceservice/workspaceservice.go:155

}

func (svc *WorkspaceService) GetIcons_Meta() tsgenmeta.MethodMeta {
	return tsgenmeta.MethodMeta{
		ReturnDesc: "icons",
	}
}

func (svc *WorkspaceService) GetIcons() []string {
	return wcore.WorkspaceIcons[:]
}

func (svc *WorkspaceService) CreateTab(workspaceId string, tabName string, activateTab bool) (string, waveobj.UpdatesRtnType, error) {
	ctx, cancelFn := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), DefaultTimeout)
	defer cancelFn()
	ctx = waveobj.ContextWithUpdates(ctx)
	tabId, err := wcore.CreateTab(ctx, workspaceId, tabName, activateTab, false)
	if err != nil {
		return "", nil, fmt.Errorf("error creating tab: %w", err)
	}
	updates := waveobj.ContextGetUpdatesRtn(ctx)
	go func() {
		defer func() {
			panichandler.PanicHandler("WorkspaceService:CreateTab:SendUpdateEvents", recover())
		}()
		wps.Broker.SendUpdateEvents(updates)
	}()
	return tabId, updates, nil
}

func (svc *WorkspaceService) SetActiveTab_Meta() tsgenmeta.MethodMeta {
	return tsgenmeta.MethodMeta{
		ArgNames: []string{"workspaceId", "tabId"},
	}
}

func (svc *WorkspaceService) SetActiveTab(workspaceId string, tabId string) (waveobj.UpdatesRtnType, error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to a4447c1563)

Solutions

1. Check that the workspaceId passed exists (wstore.DBGet[*waveobj.Workspace]) before calling CreateTab
2. Unwrap the error with errors.Unwrap / %w chain to see the root cause from wcore.CreateTab
3. Verify the wave DB file is writable and not corrupted
4. Check for context timeout (DefaultTimeout) issues on slow storage

Example fix

// before
tabId, err := svc.CreateTab("ws-does-not-exist", "New Tab", true)
// after
ws, err := wstore.DBGet[*waveobj.Workspace](ctx, "ws-does-not-exist")
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("workspace not found: %w", err) }
tabId, err := svc.CreateTab(ws.OID, "New Tab", true)

if _, err := wstore.DBGet[*waveobj.Workspace](ctx, workspaceId); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("cannot create tab: workspace %s not found: %w", workspaceId, err)
}
tabId, err := svc.CreateTab(workspaceId, tabName, activateTab)

tabId, err := svc.CreateTab(workspaceId, tabName, activateTab)
if err != nil {
    var notFound *waveobj.ErrNotFound
    if errors.As(err, &notFound) { /* refresh workspace list */ }
    return fmt.Errorf("create tab failed: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CreateTab(workspaceId, tabName, activateTab) with a workspaceId that does not exist in the DB, or when the underlying wcore.CreateTab fails due to storage/transaction errors or context timeout (DefaultTimeout exceeded).

Common situations: Stale workspace references after a workspace was deleted in another client, corrupted wave DB, or slow disk causing the context timeout.

Related errors

• error setting active tab: %w
• error getting tab: %w
• error closing tab: %w
• nil wshrpc passed to wshclient
• no default route

AI-assisted analysis of wavetermdev/waveterm@a4447c1563 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5bc3a8deba8ee763. Report an issue: GitHub.