zed-industries/zed · error

git log failed in {} with status {}: {}

Error message

git log failed in {} with status {}: {}

What it means

Bailed when `git log -5000 --pretty=... --name-only` executed in the worktree directory exits non-zero; the status and stderr are embedded. The git-log context builder mines co-occurrence of file paths across the last 5000 commits, so this fails before the related-files index can be built.

Source

Thrown at crates/edit_prediction_context/src/git_log_context.rs:94

    }
}

pub async fn build_git_log_index(worktree_dir: &Path) -> Result<GitLogIndex> {
    let mut index = GitLogIndex::new();

    let output = new_command("git")
        .arg("log")
        .arg("-5000")
        .arg("--pretty=tformat:@@COMMIT %H")
        .arg("--name-only")
        .current_dir(worktree_dir)
        .output()
        .await
        .with_context(|| format!("failed to run git log in {}", worktree_dir.display()))?;

    if !output.status.success() {
        let stderr = String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr);
        bail!(
            "git log failed in {} with status {}: {}",
            worktree_dir.display(),
            output.status,
            stderr.trim()
        );
    }

    let log = String::from_utf8(output.stdout).context("git log output was not valid UTF-8")?;
    let parsed = parse_git_log(&log);
    for files in parsed {
        for i in 0..files.len() {
            for j in (i + 1)..files.len() {
                index.add_related(files[i].clone(), files[j].clone());
            }
        }
    }

    Ok(index)

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

1. Run `git -C <dir> log -5000 --name-only` by hand to reproduce the git failure
2. Add the path to safe.directory if git reports dubious ownership
3. Verify the directory is a git repo (`git -C <dir> rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree`) before requesting git-log context
4. Confirm git is on PATH for the process launching the helper binary

let ok = std::process::Command::new("git")
    .args(["-C", worktree.to_str().unwrap(), "rev-parse", "--is-inside-work-tree"])
    .output()
    .map(|o| o.status.success())
    .unwrap_or(false);
if !ok { /* skip git-log context for this worktree instead of failing */ }

Catch the bail, log the git status/stderr from the message, and fall back to running without the git-log related-files index.

When it happens

Trigger: worktree_dir is not a git repository; 'detected dubious ownership' rejection; broken object database after an interrupted operation; git missing from the helper's PATH when spawned from the editor.

Common situations: Running the context provider on non-git folders; containerized/CI environments with mismatched repo ownership; shallow clones with damaged refs.

Related errors

• git ls-files failed in {} with status {}: {}
• git merge-base --is-ancestor failed
• too many arguments
• git status failed: {stderr}
• git diff-tree failed: {stderr}

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@f4178619ac (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ea059c800e07e0bb. Report an issue: GitHub.