For transient errors, GSD pauses briefly and resumes automatically. For permanent errors, configure fallback models:
```yaml
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:
```bash
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.
**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.
**Symptoms:** `gsd --web` fails with `ERR_UNSUPPORTED_NODE_MODULES_TYPE_STRIPPING` on Node v24.
**Cause:** Node v24 changed type-stripping behavior for `node_modules`, breaking the Next.js web build.
**Fix:** Fixed in v2.42.0+ (#1864). Upgrade to the latest version.
### Orphan web server process
**Symptoms:** `gsd --web` fails because port 3000 is already in use, even though no GSD session is running.
**Cause:** A previous web server process was not cleaned up on exit.
**Fix:** Fixed in v2.42.0+. GSD now cleans up stale web server processes automatically. If you're on an older version, kill the orphan process manually: `lsof -ti:3000 | xargs kill`.
### Non-JS project blocked by worktree health check
**Symptoms:** Worktree health check fails or blocks auto-mode in projects that don't use Node.js (e.g., Rust, Go, Python).
**Cause:** The worktree health check only recognized JavaScript ecosystems prior to v2.42.0.
**Fix:** Fixed in v2.42.0+ (#1860). The health check now supports 17+ ecosystems. Upgrade to the latest version.
### German/non-English locale git errors
**Symptoms:** Git commands fail or produce unexpected results when the system locale is non-English (e.g., German).
**Cause:** GSD parsed git output assuming English locale strings.
**Fix:** Fixed in v2.42.0+. All git commands now force `LC_ALL=C` to ensure consistent English output regardless of system locale.
**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
```bash
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:
```bash
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.
### Ctrl+Alt shortcuts trigger the wrong action (e.g., Ctrl+Alt+G opens external editor instead of GSD dashboard)
**Symptoms:** Pressing Ctrl+Alt+G opens the external editor prompt (Ctrl+G) instead of the GSD dashboard. Other Ctrl+Alt shortcuts behave as their Ctrl-only counterparts.
**Cause:** iTerm2's default Left Option Key setting is "Normal", which swallows the Alt modifier for Ctrl+Alt key combinations. The terminal receives only the Ctrl key, so Ctrl+Alt+G arrives as Ctrl+G.
**Fix:** In iTerm2, go to **Profiles → Keys → General** and set **Left Option Key** to **Esc+**. This makes Alt/Option send an escape prefix that terminal applications can detect, enabling Ctrl+Alt shortcuts to work correctly.
### 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_decision_save` (or its alias `gsd_save_decision`), `gsd_requirement_update` (or `gsd_update_requirement`), or `gsd_summary_save` (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
**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.
