Automation Troubleshooting

Automation troubleshooting

Use this page for scheduler and delivery issues (cron + heartbeat).

Command ladder

builderforce status
builderforce gateway status
builderforce logs --follow
builderforce doctor
builderforce channels status --probe

Then run automation checks:

builderforce cron status
builderforce cron list
builderforce system heartbeat last

Cron not firing

builderforce cron status
builderforce cron list
builderforce cron runs --id <jobId> --limit 20
builderforce logs --follow

Good output looks like:

cron status reports enabled and a future nextWakeAtMs.
Job is enabled and has a valid schedule/timezone.
cron runs shows ok or explicit skip reason.

Common signatures:

cron: scheduler disabled; jobs will not run automatically → cron disabled in config/env.
cron: timer tick failed → scheduler tick crashed; inspect surrounding stack/log context.
reason: not-due in run output → manual run called without --force and job not due yet.

Cron fired but no delivery

builderforce cron runs --id <jobId> --limit 20
builderforce cron list
builderforce channels status --probe
builderforce logs --follow

Good output looks like:

Run status is ok.
Delivery mode/target are set for isolated jobs.
Channel probe reports target channel connected.

Common signatures:

Run succeeded but delivery mode is none → no external message is expected.
Delivery target missing/invalid (channel/to) → run may succeed internally but skip outbound.
Channel auth errors (unauthorized, missing_scope, Forbidden) → delivery blocked by channel credentials/permissions.

Heartbeat suppressed or skipped

builderforce system heartbeat last
builderforce logs --follow
builderforce config get agents.defaults.heartbeat
builderforce channels status --probe

Good output looks like:

Heartbeat enabled with non-zero interval.
Last heartbeat result is ran (or skip reason is understood).

Common signatures:

heartbeat skipped with reason=quiet-hours → outside activeHours.
requests-in-flight → main lane busy; heartbeat deferred.
empty-heartbeat-file → HEARTBEAT.md exists but has no actionable content.
alerts-disabled → visibility settings suppress outbound heartbeat messages.

Timezone and activeHours gotchas

builderforce config get agents.defaults.heartbeat.activeHours
builderforce config get agents.defaults.heartbeat.activeHours.timezone
builderforce config get agents.defaults.userTimezone || echo "agents.defaults.userTimezone not set"
builderforce cron list
builderforce logs --follow

Quick rules:

Config path not found: agents.defaults.userTimezone means the key is unset; heartbeat falls back to host timezone (or activeHours.timezone if set).
Cron without --tz uses gateway host timezone.
Heartbeat activeHours uses configured timezone resolution (user, local, or explicit IANA tz).
ISO timestamps without timezone are treated as UTC for cron at schedules.

Common signatures:

Jobs run at the wrong wall-clock time after host timezone changes.
Heartbeat always skipped during your daytime because activeHours.timezone is wrong.