troubleshooting

name	troubleshooting
description	Diagnose and fix common Mycelium installation and runtime issues. Use when encountering errors with mycelium commands, backend connectivity, Docker containers, LLM configuration, memory operations, or database migrations. Triggers on "not working", "error", "failed", "cannot connect", "troubleshoot", "debug", "fix".

Mycelium Troubleshooting

Diagnose and fix common installation and runtime issues.

Quick Diagnostics

Run mycelium status --json for machine-readable health data, or mycelium status for human-readable output. This checks backend, database, LLM, embedding, Docker, disk, and data directory.

Common Issues

1. Command Not Found

Symptom: mycelium: command not found

Fix: Reinstall via one of these methods:

# curl
curl -fsSL https://mycelium-io.github.io/mycelium/install.sh | bash

# brew
brew install mycelium-io/tap/mycelium

Or via clawhub — tell your agent:

"install https://clawhub.ai/juliarvalenti/mycelium-io"

Verify: which mycelium should show ~/.local/bin/mycelium

If the binary exists but isn't found, add to PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

2. Backend Not Running

Symptom: Cannot connect to Mycelium API at http://localhost:8000

Diagnosis:

mycelium status          # quick check
docker ps | grep mycelium   # container status

Fixes:

• Start services: mycelium up
• Check logs: mycelium logs mycelium-backend --tail 50
• Rebuild: mycelium up --build

3. Config Not Found

Symptom: Configuration file not found: ~/.mycelium/config.toml

Fix:

mycelium init

Or with custom API URL:

mycelium init --api-url http://your-server:8000

4. Database Connection Failed

Symptom: Backend logs show connection refused or could not connect to server

Diagnosis:

docker ps | grep mycelium-db    # is container running?
docker logs mycelium-db --tail 20

Fixes:

• Wait for healthcheck: DB takes ~15s to initialize
• Check port conflict: lsof -i :5432
• Restart stack: mycelium down && mycelium up
• Nuclear option: mycelium down --volumes && mycelium up (destroys data)

5. Container Name Conflicts

Symptom: container name "mycelium-db" is already in use

Fix: The CLI handles this automatically, but if it persists:

docker rm -f mycelium-db mycelium-backend mycelium-graph-viewer
mycelium up

6. Port Already in Use

Symptom: bind: address already in use

Diagnosis:

lsof -i :8000   # backend port
lsof -i :5432   # database port

Fixes:

• Kill conflicting process
• Or use alternate ports in ~/.mycelium/.env:

  MYCELIUM_BACKEND_PORT=8001
  MYCELIUM_DB_PORT=5433
  

7. LLM Not Configured

Symptom: LLM unavailable — no API key configured

Fix: Add to ~/.mycelium/.env:

LLM_MODEL=anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6
LLM_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Or for local Ollama:

LLM_MODEL=ollama/llama3
LLM_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434

Restart backend after changes: mycelium down && mycelium up

8. Memory Search Returns Nothing

Symptom: mycelium memory search returns empty despite memories existing

Diagnosis:

mycelium memory ls   # do memories exist?
ls ~/.mycelium/rooms/   # files present?

Fixes:

• Memories written directly (cat, editor) need reindex:

  mycelium reindex
  

• Check active room: mycelium room ls — wrong room selected?

9. No Active Room

Symptom: No active room. Use 'mycelium room use <name>'

Fixes:

mycelium room ls           # list available rooms
mycelium room use my-project   # set active room

Or pass room explicitly:

mycelium memory ls --room my-project

10. Migration Failures

Symptom: alembic.util.exc.CommandError or schema mismatch

Note: Migrations run automatically when the backend container starts. Manual migration is rarely needed.

Diagnosis:

mycelium logs mycelium-backend --tail 100   # check startup errors

Fixes:

• Restart the stack: mycelium down && mycelium up
• If schema is corrupted, reset: mycelium down --volumes && mycelium up (destroys data)
• Check backend logs for specific SQL errors

11. Docker Not Installed/Running

Symptom: Docker not installed or Cannot connect to Docker daemon

Fixes:

• Install Docker: https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/
• Start daemon: sudo systemctl start docker
• Add user to docker group: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER (logout/login required)

12. Image Pull Failures

Symptom: manifest unknown or unauthorized

Fixes:

• Login to ghcr: docker login ghcr.io
• Pull explicitly: docker pull ghcr.io/mycelium-io/mycelium-backend:latest
• Build from source: mycelium up --build

13. OpenClaw Agents Prompt for Approval on Mycelium Commands

Symptom: Agents display "Approval required" messages when trying to run mycelium commands like mycelium session join, or you see "You are not authorized to approve exec requests" in your chat channel.

Cause: OpenClaw's exec approval system blocks shell commands by default. The mycelium binary must be explicitly allowlisted.

Fix: Add mycelium to the exec approvals allowlist:

# For specific agents (recommended)
openclaw approvals allowlist add --agent "agent-alpha" "~/.local/bin/mycelium"
openclaw approvals allowlist add --agent "agent-beta" "~/.local/bin/mycelium"

# Or for all agents (convenient but less restrictive)
openclaw approvals allowlist add --agent "*" "~/.local/bin/mycelium"

Then restart the gateway:

openclaw gateway restart
# or: systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway

Verify: Check ~/.openclaw/exec-approvals.json contains the mycelium pattern in the allowlist.

Note: The allowlist pattern must be a full binary path (e.g., ~/.local/bin/mycelium), not just the command name (mycelium).

14. OpenClaw CLI Commands Fail with "pairing required" or "device token mismatch"

Symptom: Running openclaw logs, openclaw devices list, or other gateway commands fails with errors like:

• gateway connect failed: GatewayClientRequestError: pairing required
• unauthorized: device token mismatch (rotate/reissue device token)

Cause: OpenClaw's gateway requires device authentication. The CLI needs to be "paired" (approved) before it can communicate with the gateway for operator-level commands.

Fix:

1. List pending device pairing requests:

   openclaw devices list
   

2. Approve the pending request:

   openclaw devices approve <requestId>
   # Or approve the most recent request:
   openclaw devices approve --latest
   

15. Agent Behaving Strangely / "Why did it do that?"

Symptom: An agent took an unexpected action, replied with the wrong context, called the wrong tool, or burned a lot of tokens. mycelium metrics show rolls everything up into headline numbers but doesn't show why a specific turn behaved that way.

Fix: Drill into the actual span tree with mycelium metrics traces:

# 1. Find the recent spans for the agent
mycelium metrics traces list --agent=claire-agent --since=15m

# 2. Pick a trace_id from the output and render it as a tree.
#    Each row shows model, tokens, tool name, exit code, and any
#    error message, so you can see exactly which step went wrong.
mycelium metrics traces show <trace_id>

# 3. Want every attribute the OTel pipeline captured? (system prompt
#    chars, context window size, channel, trigger, etc.)
mycelium metrics traces show-attrs <span_id>

Other useful pivots when an agent looks off:

# What models is it actually calling?
mycelium metrics traces by-model --agent=claire-agent --since=1h

# Which rooms / channels has it been active in?
mycelium metrics traces by-room --agent=claire-agent --since=1h
mycelium metrics traces by-channel --agent=claire-agent --since=1h

# Tool call patterns (which tools, how often, error rate)
mycelium metrics traces by-tool --agent=claire-agent --since=1h

# Slowest turns (e.g. context assembly blowing up)
mycelium metrics traces slow --agent=claire-agent --since=1h

# Just the failures
mycelium metrics traces errors --agent=claire-agent --since=1h

If mycelium metrics traces ... reports traces.db not found, the OTLP receiver isn't running on the hub — see issue #16.

Configuration

Mycelium has two config systems: config.toml for CLI settings and .env for backend/Docker settings.

CLI Settings (config.toml)

Stored in ~/.mycelium/config.toml (global) and ./.mycelium/config.toml (project-local).

Setting	config.toml path	Env var override
Backend URL	server.api_url	MYCELIUM_API_URL
Workspace ID	server.workspace_id	MYCELIUM_WORKSPACE_ID
MAS ID	server.mas_id	MYCELIUM_MAS_ID
Active room	rooms.active	MYCELIUM_ACTIVE_ROOM
Agent handle	identity.name	MYCELIUM_AGENT_HANDLE

Priority (highest to lowest): env var → project config.toml → global config.toml → defaults

Backend Settings (.env)

Stored in ~/.mycelium/.env. Used by Docker Compose and the backend container.

Variable	Description	Default
LLM_MODEL	LiteLLM model string	anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6
LLM_API_KEY	Provider API key	(required for cloud LLMs)
LLM_BASE_URL	Custom LLM endpoint	(for Ollama, vLLM)
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection	(compose sets this)
MYCELIUM_DATA_DIR	Data directory	~/.mycelium
MYCELIUM_DB_PASSWORD	Database password	password
MYCELIUM_BACKEND_PORT	Backend port	8000
MYCELIUM_DB_PORT	Database port	5432

File Locations

File	Purpose
~/.mycelium/config.toml	CLI settings (identity, server URL)
./.mycelium/config.toml	Project settings (active room)
~/.mycelium/.env	Backend/Docker settings (LLM, database)
~/.mycelium/rooms/{name}/	Room memory files

Log Locations

mycelium logs                      # all services
mycelium logs mycelium-backend     # backend only
mycelium logs mycelium-db          # database only
docker logs mycelium-backend       # direct docker access

For CLI debug output:

mycelium --verbose status

Reset Everything

When all else fails:

mycelium down --volumes   # stop and delete data
rm -rf ~/.mycelium        # remove all config
mycelium init             # fresh start
mycelium up

Getting Help

1. Check mycelium status output
2. Review logs: mycelium logs --tail 100
3. Verify config: cat ~/.mycelium/config.toml
4. Check .env: cat ~/.mycelium/.env