jedarden 092d376326 docs(tb-1zrf): document and fix bead-worker starvation bug

Self-blocking dependency on tb-1me prevented Pluck from claiming any beads.
Removed the circular dependency and documented the root cause and fix.

Bead-Id: tb-1zrf

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-07-02 14:08:27 -04:00

1,016 B

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Bead tb-1zrf: Starvation Alert - Self-Blocking Dependency Fix

Issue

Starvation alert: "Open beads exist but Pluck found none — possible configuration error."

9 open beads in workspace
0 beads found by Pluck (bead-worker)

Root Cause

tb-1me had a self-blocking dependency - it blocked itself via a dependency entry added by a batch operation on 2026-07-02T15:25:21.217314Z.

This created a deadlock:

tb-1me (deferred) could not be claimed because it blocked itself
All non-deferred open beads (tb-163k, tb-2ir, tb-2lh, tb-3iu, tb-5wj, tb-62m) were blocked by tb-1me
Pluck found 0 claimable beads

Resolution

Removed the self-blocking dependency:

br dep remove tb-1me tb-1me -w .

After removal, br ready now returns tb-1me as claimable.

Lessons

Self-blocking dependencies can silently starve the bead worker
The starvation alert mechanism correctly surfaced the issue
Always validate dependency chains after batch operations

Date Resolved

2026-07-02

1,016 B Raw Blame History