troubleshooting

name	troubleshooting
description	Invoke when debugging failures, diagnosing unexpected behavior, or investigating test failures. Contains project-specific failure modes, diagnostic workflows, and known issues.

Troubleshooting

Detected

Common Issues

• TypeScript reports "possibly null" or "possibly undefined" after a type guard, but only in async functions — the guard works in sync code — Type narrowing does not persist across await boundaries because the variable could be reassigned between suspension points. Re-narrow after each await: if (!x) throw before the await, then if (!x) throw again after.
• Object literal type is widened to string instead of the literal value, or array type is string[] instead of a tuple — Add as const to the declaration: const x = { type: "success" } as const gives { readonly type: "success" } instead of { type: string }. For arrays: const arr = ["a", "b"] as const gives readonly ["a", "b"] instead of string[].
• "ERR_REQUIRE_ESM" when importing an ESM-only package, or "SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement in a module" — ESM-only packages (like chalk v5+, execa v6+, node-fetch v3+) cannot be require()'d. Either: (1) switch your project to ESM ("type": "module" in package.json), (2) use dynamic import() for the ESM package, or (3) pin an older CJS-compatible version.
• Process crashes with "UnhandledPromiseRejection" — an async function throws but nothing catches it — Ensure every Promise chain has a .catch() or is inside a try/catch in an async function. For fire-and-forget promises, add .catch(err => logger.error(err)). Check for missing await on async calls — without it, the rejection is unhandled. Prevention: Add process.on("unhandledRejection", handler) as a safety net, but fix the root cause — unhandled rejections indicate a code bug.
• Tests hang indefinitely in CI or when run from scripts — process never exits — Vitest defaults to watch mode in interactive terminals. Pass --run flag to run tests once and exit: vitest run instead of vitest. In CI, Vitest auto-detects non-interactive environments, but scripts piping output may still trigger watch mode. Prevention: Always use vitest run in CI scripts and non-interactive contexts.
• Tests pass individually but fail when run together — mock from one test bleeds into another — Call vi.restoreAllMocks() in afterEach or set mockReset: true / restoreAllMocks: true in vitest.config.ts. Module mocks (vi.mock()) persist across tests in the same file — use vi.unmock() or restructure to avoid shared module-level mocks.

Rules

Pre-commit hook rejects commit. The hook runs tsc --noEmit (source + tests) and eslint. It does NOT run tests. The most common cause is a type error. Run cd packages/cli && pnpm typecheck to see the specific error. Don't use --no-verify to skip the hook — the build (tsup/SWC) strips types without checking, so the hook is the only enforcement.

Gotcha triggers don't fire on the expected stack. Gotcha triggers match against stack.* fields which store DISPLAY NAMES, not package names. { aiSdk: 'Anthropic' } fires. { aiSdk: '@anthropic-ai/sdk' } does not. Check packages/cli/src/data/gotchas.ts for existing trigger values.

Schema detection shows wrong file or wrong model count. In monorepos, census first checks {root}/prisma/schema.prisma and {root}/schema.prisma for each workspace package. If multiple schema files exist, the scan picks the one with the most models. For multi-file schemas (Prisma prismaSchemaFolder), models are counted across all .prisma files in the directory. If the wrong schema is selected, check which workspace packages have a prisma/ directory.

Re-init doesn't show new template content. CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, and agent definitions use merge-not-overwrite — existing files are preserved. To see fresh template output after changing templates, delete the existing files first: rm CLAUDE.md AGENTS.md && rm -rf .claude/agents/ then re-run ana init --force.

pnpm test at workspace root behaves differently than in packages/cli. The root test script runs through turbo, which handles argument passthrough differently. Use cd packages/cli && pnpm test -- --run for reliable test execution with the --run flag. Running pnpm test --run from the workspace root may fail or pass arguments incorrectly.

Gotchas

Add new entries as they're discovered during development. Each entry should describe the symptom, the cause, and the fix.

Examples

Not yet captured. Add diagnostic workflows showing how to investigate common failures.