reflect:errors-ack

Reflect: Errors Ack

Triages unacknowledged entries in ~/.reflect/errors.json and acknowledges them (individually or in bulk). The statusline ⚠N /reflect:errors-ack badge is the entry point — clicking the badge or typing /reflect:errors-ack lands here.

When to Use

• Statusline shows ⚠N /reflect:errors-ack badge
• User asks "what are the reflect errors", "what's broken in reflect"
• After a known fix has landed and user wants to clear stale errors
• Periodic triage of accumulated pipeline noise

What This Skill Does

1. Load ~/.reflect/errors.json and filter to unacked entries
2. Render a triage table (id · ts · source · kind · short message)
3. Group entries by kind so repeats are obvious
4. Ask the user (via AskUserQuestion):
   • Ack all — wipe the badge, suitable when the user has already fixed the root cause
   • Ack by kind — clear a specific failure class while keeping others visible (e.g. ack all drain_poison after fixing the parser)
   • Show details — print the full message + traceback for an entry
   • Leave alone — exit without changes
5. Run reflect errors ack [ids...] and report the count of records flipped to acked: true

Triage table format

id           when     source   kind             message (first 80 chars)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
err-b177eb   05-17    drain    drain_poison     poison after 3 retries: …
err-614742   05-17    drain    drain_poison     poison after 3 retries: …
err-579ed4   05-17    drain    drain_no_output  claude -p produced no out…
err-c942a3   05-17    drain    drain_poison     poison after 3 retries: …

Group repeats by kind in the prompt: "4 drain_poison + 1 drain_no_output — ack all? ack just drain_poison? show one in detail?"

Backend commands

Use the installed reflect CLI (from uv tool install reflect-kb). If reflect isn't on $PATH, self-bootstrap with uv run --with reflect-kb python -m reflect_kb.errors <args> — the bare python3 -m reflect_kb.errors form only works when reflect_kb is importable by system python3, which it usually isn't.

# Count of unacked entries (what the statusline badge reads)
reflect errors count

# Ack all unacked entries
reflect errors ack

# Ack specific entries by ID
reflect errors ack err-b177eb err-614742

# Append a new error (used by hooks/scripts, not user)
reflect errors append \
  --source drain --kind drain_poison --message "…" --context '{}'

The store at ~/.reflect/errors.json is locked via fcntl so it's safe to ack and append concurrently. Entries are deduplicated within a short window (same kind + same hash) to prevent loops from flooding it.

Implementation

When invoked:

# 1. show the count + table
reflect errors count
python3 <<'PY'
import json, datetime
with open('/Users/stevengonsalvez/.reflect/errors.json') as f:
    d = json.load(f)
unacked = [e for e in d.get('errors', []) if not e.get('acked')]
for e in unacked[:20]:
    eid = e.get('id', '?')
    ts = e.get('timestamp', e.get('ts', '?'))[:10]
    src = (e.get('source') or '?')[:10]
    kind = (e.get('kind') or '?')[:18]
    msg = (e.get('message') or '')[:80]
    print(f"{eid:12} {ts:10} {src:10} {kind:18} {msg}")
PY

# 2. ask user via AskUserQuestion (ack all / ack by kind / show detail / leave)

# 3. run ack
reflect errors ack [optional-ids]

After ack the badge disappears on next statusline refresh (10s cache).

Output template

Found N unacked errors in ~/.reflect/errors.json.

By kind:
  drain_poison      ×4
  drain_no_output   ×1

Acked M entries. Badge will clear within 10s.

When NOT to use this skill

• Don't ack errors blindly — at least skim the kinds. Repeated parser_typeerror or ingest_* failures usually point at a real bug that needs fixing before acking (otherwise the same error returns next session).
• Don't delete ~/.reflect/errors.json to clear the badge — that loses the history. Always ack.

Related

• /reflect-status — broader system health view
• /reflect:recall — search learnings (separate concern, not errors)
• The errors sink itself: ~/.reflect/errors.json
• Statusline badge: ⚠N /reflect:errors-ack (rendered red, only when count > 0)