troubleshooting.md

Troubleshooting

/gsd doctor

The built-in diagnostic tool validates .gsd/ integrity:

/gsd doctor

It checks:

• File structure and naming conventions
• Roadmap ↔ slice ↔ task referential integrity
• Completion state consistency
• Git worktree health (worktree and branch modes only — skipped in none mode)
• Stale lock files and orphaned runtime records

Common Issues

Auto mode loops on the same unit

Symptoms: The same unit (e.g., research-slice or plan-slice) dispatches repeatedly until hitting the dispatch limit.

Causes:

• Stale cache after a crash — the in-memory file listing doesn't reflect new artifacts
• The LLM didn't produce the expected artifact file

Fix: Run /gsd doctor to repair state, then resume with /gsd auto. If the issue persists, check that the expected artifact file exists on disk.

Auto mode stops with "Loop detected"

Cause: A unit failed to produce its expected artifact twice in a row.

Fix: Check the task plan for clarity. If the plan is ambiguous, refine it manually, then /gsd auto to resume.

Wrong files in worktree

Symptoms: Planning artifacts or code appear in the wrong directory.

Cause: The LLM wrote to the main repo instead of the worktree.

Fix: This was fixed in v2.14+. If you're on an older version, update. The dispatch prompt now includes explicit working directory instructions.

command not found: gsd after install

Symptoms: npm install -g gsd-pi succeeds but gsd isn't found.

Cause: npm's global bin directory isn't in your shell's $PATH.

Fix:

# Find where npm installed the binary
npm prefix -g
# Output: /opt/homebrew (Apple Silicon) or /usr/local (Intel Mac)

# Add the bin directory to your PATH if missing
echo 'export PATH="$(npm prefix -g)/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Workaround: Run npx gsd-pi or $(npm prefix -g)/bin/gsd directly.

Common causes:

• Homebrew Node — /opt/homebrew/bin should be in PATH but sometimes isn't if Homebrew init is missing from your shell profile
• Version manager (nvm, fnm, mise) — global bin is version-specific; ensure your version manager initializes in your shell config
• oh-my-zsh — the gitfast plugin aliases gsd to git svn dcommit. Check with alias gsd and unalias if needed

npm install -g gsd-pi fails

Common causes:

• Missing workspace packages — fixed in v2.10.4+
• postinstall hangs on Linux (Playwright --with-deps triggering sudo) — fixed in v2.3.6+
• Node.js version too old — requires ≥ 22.0.0

Provider errors during auto mode

Symptoms: Auto mode pauses with a provider error (rate limit, server error, auth failure).

How GSD handles it (v2.26):

Error type	Auto-resume?	Delay
Rate limit (429, "too many requests")	✅ Yes	retry-after header or 60s
Server error (500, 502, 503, "overloaded")	✅ Yes	30s
Auth/billing ("unauthorized", "invalid key")	❌ No	Manual resume

For transient errors, GSD pauses briefly and resumes automatically. For permanent errors, configure fallback models:

models:
  execution:
    model: claude-sonnet-4-6
    fallbacks:
      - openrouter/minimax/minimax-m2.5

Headless mode: gsd headless auto auto-restarts the entire process on crash (default 3 attempts with exponential backoff). Combined with provider error auto-resume, this enables true overnight unattended execution.

Budget ceiling reached

Symptoms: Auto mode pauses with "Budget ceiling reached."

Fix: Increase budget_ceiling in preferences, or switch to budget token profile to reduce per-unit cost, then resume with /gsd auto.

Stale lock file

Symptoms: Auto mode won't start, says another session is running.

Fix: GSD automatically detects stale locks — if the owning PID is dead, the lock is cleaned up and re-acquired on the next /gsd auto. This includes stranded .gsd.lock/ directories left by proper-lockfile after crashes. If automatic recovery fails, delete .gsd/auto.lock and the .gsd.lock/ directory manually:

rm -f .gsd/auto.lock
rm -rf "$(dirname .gsd)/.gsd.lock"

Git merge conflicts

Symptoms: Worktree merge fails on .gsd/ files.

Fix: GSD auto-resolves conflicts on .gsd/ runtime files. For content conflicts in code files, the LLM is given an opportunity to resolve them via a fix-merge session. If that fails, manual resolution is needed.

Pre-dispatch says the milestone integration branch no longer exists

Symptoms: Auto mode or /gsd doctor reports that a milestone recorded an integration branch that no longer exists in git.

What it means: The milestone's .gsd/milestones/<MID>/<MID>-META.json still points at the branch that was active when the milestone started, but that branch has since been renamed or deleted.

Current behavior:

• If GSD can deterministically recover to a safe branch, it no longer hard-stops auto mode.
• Safe fallbacks are:
  • explicit git.main_branch when configured and present
  • the repo's detected default integration branch (for example main or master)
• In that case /gsd doctor reports a warning and /gsd doctor fix rewrites the stale metadata to the effective branch.
• GSD still blocks when no safe fallback branch can be determined.

Fix:

• Run /gsd doctor fix to rewrite the stale milestone metadata automatically when the fallback is obvious.
• If GSD still blocks, recreate the missing branch or update your git preferences so git.main_branch points at a real branch.

Transient EBUSY / EPERM / EACCES while writing .gsd/ files

Symptoms: On Windows, auto mode or doctor occasionally fails while updating .gsd/ files with errors like EBUSY, EPERM, or EACCES.

Cause: Antivirus, indexers, editors, or filesystem watchers can briefly lock the destination or temp file just as GSD performs the atomic rename.

Current behavior: GSD now retries those transient rename failures with a short bounded backoff before surfacing an error. The retry is intentionally limited so genuine filesystem problems still fail loudly instead of hanging forever.

Fix:

• Re-run the operation; most transient lock races clear quickly.
• If the error persists, close tools that may be holding the file open and then retry.
• If repeated failures continue, run /gsd doctor to confirm the repo state is still healthy and report the exact path + error code.

MCP Client Issues

mcp_servers shows no configured servers

Symptoms: mcp_servers reports no servers configured.

Common causes:

• No .mcp.json or .gsd/mcp.json file exists in the current project
• The config file is malformed JSON
• The server is configured in a different project directory than the one where you launched GSD

Fix:

• Add the server to .mcp.json or .gsd/mcp.json
• Verify the file parses as JSON
• Re-run mcp_servers(refresh=true)

mcp_discover times out

Symptoms: mcp_discover fails with a timeout.

Common causes:

• The server process starts but never completes the MCP handshake
• The configured command points to a script that hangs on startup
• The server is waiting on an unavailable dependency or backend service

Fix:

• Run the configured command directly outside GSD and confirm the server actually starts
• Check that any backend URLs or required services are reachable
• For local custom servers, verify the implementation is using an MCP SDK or a correct stdio protocol implementation

mcp_discover reports connection closed

Symptoms: mcp_discover fails immediately with a connection-closed error.

Common causes:

• Wrong executable path
• Wrong script path
• Missing runtime dependency
• The server crashes before responding

Fix:

• Verify command and args paths are correct and absolute
• Run the command manually to catch import/runtime errors
• Check that the configured interpreter or runtime exists on the machine

mcp_call fails because required arguments are missing

Symptoms: A discovered MCP tool exists, but calling it fails validation because required fields are missing.

Common causes:

• The call shape is wrong
• The target server's tool schema changed
• You're calling a stale server definition or stale branch build

Fix:

• Re-run mcp_discover(server="name") and confirm the exact required argument names
• Call the tool with mcp_call(server="name", tool="tool_name", args={...})
• If you're developing GSD itself, rebuild after schema changes with npm run build

Local stdio server works manually but not in GSD

Symptoms: Running the server command manually seems fine, but GSD can't connect.

Common causes:

• The server depends on shell state that GSD doesn't inherit
• Relative paths only work from a different working directory
• Required environment variables exist in your shell but not in the MCP config

Fix:

• Use absolute paths for command and script arguments
• Set required environment variables in the MCP config's env block
• If needed, set cwd explicitly in the server definition

Session lock stolen by /gsd in another terminal

Symptoms: Running /gsd (step mode) in a second terminal causes a running auto-mode session to lose its lock.

Fix: Fixed in v2.36.0. Bare /gsd no longer steals the session lock from a running auto-mode session. Upgrade to the latest version.

Worktree commits landing on main instead of milestone branch

Symptoms: Auto-mode commits in a worktree end up on main instead of the milestone/<MID> branch.

Fix: Fixed in v2.37.1. CWD is now realigned before dispatch and stale merge state is cleaned on failure. Upgrade to the latest version.

Extension loader fails with subpath export error

Symptoms: Extension fails to load with a Cannot find module error referencing npm subpath exports.

Cause: Dynamic imports in the extension loader didn't resolve npm subpath exports (e.g., @pkg/foo/bar).

Fix: Fixed in v2.38+. The extension loader now auto-resolves npm subpath exports and creates a node_modules symlink for dynamic import resolution. Upgrade to the latest version.

Recovery Procedures

Reset auto mode state

rm .gsd/auto.lock
rm .gsd/completed-units.json

Then /gsd auto to restart from current disk state.

Reset routing history

If adaptive model routing is producing bad results, clear the routing history:

rm .gsd/routing-history.json

Full state rebuild

/gsd doctor

Doctor rebuilds STATE.md from plan and roadmap files on disk and fixes detected inconsistencies.

Getting Help

• GitHub Issues: github.com/gsd-build/GSD-2/issues
• Dashboard: Ctrl+Alt+G or /gsd status for real-time diagnostics
• Forensics: /gsd forensics for structured post-mortem analysis of auto-mode failures
• Session logs: .gsd/activity/ contains JSONL session dumps for crash forensics

Windows-Specific Issues

LSP returns ENOENT on Windows (MSYS2/Git Bash)

Symptoms: LSP initialization fails with ENOENT or resolves POSIX-style paths like /c/Users/... instead of C:\Users\....

Cause: The which command in MSYS2/Git Bash returns POSIX paths that Node.js spawn() can't resolve.

Fix: Updated in v2.29+ to use where.exe on Windows. Upgrade to the latest version.

EBUSY errors during WXT/extension builds

Symptoms: EBUSY: resource busy or locked, rmdir .output/chrome-mv3 when building browser extensions.

Cause: A Chromium browser has the extension loaded from the build output directory, preventing deletion.

Fix: Close the browser extension, or set a different outDirTemplate in your WXT config to avoid the locked directory.

Database Issues

"GSD database is not available"

Symptoms: gsd_save_decision, gsd_update_requirement, or gsd_save_summary fail with this error.

Cause: The SQLite database wasn't initialized. This happens in manual /gsd sessions (non-auto mode) on versions before v2.29.

Fix: Updated in v2.29+ to auto-initialize the database on first tool call. Upgrade to the latest version.

Verification Issues

Verification gate fails with shell syntax error

Symptoms: stderr: /bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected during verification checks.

Cause: A description-like string (e.g., All 10 checks pass (build, lint)) was treated as a shell command. This can happen when task plans have verify: fields with prose instead of actual commands.

Fix: Updated in v2.29+ to filter preference commands through isLikelyCommand(). Ensure verification_commands in preferences contains only valid shell commands, not descriptions.

LSP (Language Server Protocol)

"LSP isn't available in this workspace"

GSD auto-detects language servers based on project files (e.g. package.json → TypeScript, Cargo.toml → Rust, go.mod → Go). If no servers are detected, the agent skips LSP features.

Check status:

lsp status

This shows which servers are active and, if none are found, diagnoses why — including which project markers were detected but which server commands are missing.

Common fixes:

Project type	Install command
TypeScript/JavaScript	npm install -g typescript-language-server typescript
Python	pip install pyright or pip install python-lsp-server
Rust	rustup component add rust-analyzer
Go	go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest

After installing, run lsp reload to restart detection without restarting GSD.