Stack gotchas

stack-gotchas

Overview

Diagnose-and-recover recipes for failures I've actually hit. Each is symptom → what it really means → fix — not a tutorial. Match the symptom, apply the recipe.

release-please: "Resource not accessible by integration"

• Symptom: release-please fails at "Creating N releases…" despite correct token perms.
• Means: GitHub secondary rate-limit (abuse detection) on the github-actions[bot] token, not a permissions bug. Tell-tale: a release succeeded seconds earlier; gh api rate_limit core looks healthy. Usually triggered by a burst (dependabot opening ~12 PRs).
• Fix: (1) create the missing release with your user token, full 40-char SHA: gh release create vX.Y.Z --target <full-sha> --title vX.Y.Z --notes "<CHANGELOG section>" --latest. (2) Swap the PR label autorelease: pending → autorelease: tagged via REST (gh api), or it retries forever. (3) Let the bot cooldown clear (~minutes–1h) with no more content-creation calls. Code usually deployed anyway (Pages runs on push independently).

release-please: infinite auto-merge loop

• Symptom: the release PR never merges; the workflow re-dispatches itself every ~90s.
• Means: the bot's PR (made with GITHUB_TOKEN) gets no CI run → the required verify check never appears → auto-merge can't complete; it lands only via a fragile fast-forward that breaks if main advanced by hand in parallel.
• Fix: create the tag/release yourself at main HEAD (gh release create vX.Y.Z --target <main-sha>) → no pending release → no re-dispatch → loop stops. Replicate the bump in package.json + .release-please-manifest.json + CHANGELOG.md via a normal user PR so CI runs. Don't hand-merge main mid-release. Durable fix: give release-please a PAT (its PRs then trigger CI) and drop the unconditional self-redispatch.

release-please: "GitHub Actions is not permitted to create or approve pull requests" (new repo)

• Symptom: on a freshly created repo, the Release workflow's release-please step fails almost immediately (~15s) with release-please failed: GitHub Actions is not permitted to create or approve pull requests. The CI workflow is fine; only release PR creation fails.
• Means: new repos default the repo Actions setting to default_workflow_permissions=read + can_approve_pull_request_reviews=false. release-please must open its release PR, and the repo/org toggle overrides the workflow-level permissions: pull-requests: write — so the in-workflow grant is not enough on its own.
• Fix: enable it once (Settings → Actions → General → "Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests"), via API:

  gh api -X PUT repos/<owner>/<repo>/actions/permissions/workflow \
    -f default_workflow_permissions=write -F can_approve_pull_request_reviews=true
  gh run rerun <failed-release-run-id>
  

  Do this right after gh repo create for any new FAP / sister app — it's a one-time per-repo setting, not a code or token problem. (Distinct from the secondary rate-limit and auto-merge-loop failures above.)

GitHub Pages: deploy rejected with empty logs after master→main rename

• Symptom: the deploy job fails with no steps and empty logs.
• Means: rejected at the environment gate — the github-pages env's deployment-branch-policy still lists only the old branch (master).
• Fix:

  gh api -X POST repos/<owner>/<repo>/environments/github-pages/deployment-branch-policies -f name=main
  gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/environments/github-pages/deployment-branch-policies --jq '.branch_policies[]'
  gh api -X DELETE repos/<owner>/<repo>/environments/github-pages/deployment-branch-policies/<id>
  

  Set the default branch before the first deploy; ensure Pages build_type=workflow.

Verify mobile/responsive rendering in WSL (no sudo)

• Symptom: you need to see/measure real mobile widths but there's no Linux browser; Windows Edge headless clamps window width to ~500px (screenshots <450px render a wider layout cropped — misleading), and puppeteer can't drive the Windows .exe from WSL (stdio pipe breaks; its CDP debug port is unreachable over NAT).
• Means: you need a native Linux Chromium, but the one puppeteer downloads is missing libnss3/libnspr4/libasound2 and there's no passwordless sudo.
• Fix (all without root):

  npx -y @puppeteer/browsers install chrome@stable        # native linux chromium
  apt-get download libnss3 libnspr4 libasound2t64         # download .deb, no sudo
  for d in *.deb; do dpkg -x "$d" root; done              # extract libs locally
  # run with: LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/root/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu  <chrome> …
  

  Drive via puppeteer-core (executablePath = that chrome; LD_LIBRARY_PATH in the env). Then setViewport({ width, deviceScaleFactor: 2, isMobile: true }) at any width, measure scrollWidth/getBoundingClientRect, bisect overflow by toggling display:none per child, and confirm a fix by injecting the style and re-measuring before editing. Keep the env until done — don't re-download the ~150MB browser mid-task.
• Before re-debugging a "still broken" UI report: confirm the user isn't on a stale deploy or cached PWA (check the live tag + that autoUpdate activated). Much of this class of confusion is version lag, not a bug.

Supabase: egress blown (not DB size)

• Symptom: Free-tier limit hit while DB size is tiny.
• Means: the binding limit is egress ≈ blob_size × updates × connected_clients. Usually an unbounded field in a JSON blob growing quadratically (history/trash snapshots).
• Fix: cap growing fields hard; make history an audit-log (no full snapshots); broadcast only {version} over Realtime and version-gate full fetches; write-through the local cache. See eskills:perf-bar. Next lever: split the growing field into its own table.

Supabase: open-write RLS

• Symptom: anyone with the anon key can overwrite a row via PostgREST.
• Means: RLS is SELECT true + INSERT/UPDATE true; client-side PIN/rate-limit give no server protection (the anon key ships in the client).
• Fix: restrict direct writes; enforce ownership/PIN in an RPC with RLS. See eskills:security-bar.

Supabase: stale-client blob wipe

• Symptom: a newly-added field (e.g. subgroups) silently disappears after another user edits.
• Means: whole-blob rewrite + Zod stripping unknown keys + a manual-update PWA → a stale cached client (running old code) drops fields its schema doesn't know on its next write. The optimistic version check doesn't protect (same-version-lineage overwrite).
• Fix: stamp _schemaVersion on every write + a Postgres BEFORE UPDATE trigger rejecting writes whose version < stored (→ HTTP 426 → "please update" prompt); flip the PWA to autoUpdate. Operational rule: bump SCHEMA_VERSION whenever the snapshot shape changes, or the guard won't protect the new field.

Flipper FAP: release-please leaves application.fam un-bumped

• Symptom: one leg of the triad stays behind on release — e.g. application.fam's fap_version, OR include/version.h's constant — while the others bump → catalog/CI mismatch, and an in-app "version" string shows the stale number.
• Means: the generic updater only replaces a version on a line that itself carries the x-release-please-version marker. The marker must be INLINE on the same line as the value — fap_version="x.y.z" # x-release-please-version and #define APP_VERSION "x.y.z" // x-release-please-version. A marker on a separate line above the #define (or a missing/edited marker) makes the updater silently no-op that file. (Hit on flipper-tutu: version.h had the marker on its own line and stuck at 0.1.0 while fam/manifest advanced.)
• Fix: put the marker inline on each version-bearing line; sync the lagging file to the current version once by hand; keep the triad application.fam ↔ include/version.h ↔ .release-please-manifest.json aligned. See stacks/references/flipper/release-please.md.

Flipper FAP: catalog submission rejected on version/commit

• Symptom: the official catalog CI fails the entry.
• Means: the manifest commit_sha points at a later fix commit instead of the tagged release commit, or the entry version ≠ fap_version.
• Fix: point commit_sha at the release commit; make the catalog version equal fap_version. (Catalog-update-flow memory + stacks → flipper.)

Flipper FAP: host test won't compile (furi symbols)

• Symptom: make test fails to compile with undefined furi references.
• Means: a file under test (transitively) includes furi — furi isn't available on the host gcc build; the layering leaked.
• Fix: keep domain/ pure C and move the furi-touching code behind a plain-C signature in platform/. Only test domain/. See stacks/references/flipper/architecture.md.

Flipper FAP: cppcheck flags entry points as unusedFunction

• Symptom: make linter errors on unusedFunction for main.c / *_app.c / port files.
• Means: those functions are called by the firmware, not within the TU — a cppcheck false positive, not dead code.
• Fix: add a path-scoped --suppress=unusedFunction:<path> (or inline // cppcheck-suppress), never disable the check globally. See stacks/references/flipper/formatting.md.

Flipper FAP: blank/stale UI when launched from favourites or quick-buttons

• Symptom: the screen is blank or frozen (UI never refreshes) when the app is opened from a desktop favourite or a quick-press button shortcut — but it works fine when opened from the Apps menu. (Reported by catalog users on two of my apps.)
• Means: the app only calls view_port_update() in reaction to input — the main loop blocks on furi_message_queue_get(..., FuriWaitForever) and paints nothing until a key is pressed. The Apps menu masks it: the loader's background hourglass animation forces a GUI redraw, so the first frame appears. Favourites/quick-buttons skip that loader → nothing triggers the draw. The app was leaning on an external redraw ("a bug"), not driving its own.
• Fix: force the redraw from the app itself. (1) Draw once immediately after gui_add_view_port(...) with view_port_update(view_port). (2) Don't depend on input to paint: either give the queue a finite timeout (furi_message_queue_get(q, &e, 50)) and call view_port_update() every loop tick, or call it after every state change (including the initial state). Same fix for a ViewDispatcher/SceneManager app: ensure the first scene transition happens before the loop blocks. See stacks/references/flipper/architecture.md.

GDPR: open-RLS exposes personal data

• Symptom: any anon key holder can read/update/delete rows that contain names, email, or financial data (e.g. EventSplit's events blob).
• Means: open-write RLS (SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE true) isn't just a security bug — it's a personal-data exposure / breach risk under GDPR (unauthorized access to identifiable people, including third parties who never consented).
• Fix: restrict direct writes / enforce ownership in an RPC (the security fix → eskills:security-bar); then in the privacy notice, only claim protections you actually have. Don't document "your data is protected" while RLS is open. See eskills:gdpr.

GDPR: undisclosed international transfer to an AI provider

• Symptom: the app sends user audio/text to OpenAI/Anthropic/Google/Azure, but the privacy notice (if any) doesn't mention it (mintza).
• Means: that's a processor + international transfer (US) with no disclosure and no transfer mechanism named — a GDPR gap, and possibly special-category data (voice).
• Fix: disclose every AI provider as a processor + name the transfer basis (SCCs/DPF) in the notice; confirm no-training-on-API-data + retention; send the model the minimum content, no needless identifiers. See eskills:gdpr (AI-processor posture).