Summary
batch_query returns per-entry success/failure but does not signal whether failures are isolated (each entry failed on its own merits) or cascading (something happened mid-batch and the rest were never attempted). Without that distinction, a client cannot tell "5 succeeded, 5 failed because each had bad args" from "5 succeeded, 5 failed because the DB connection died after entry 5".
Evidence
src/CodeIndex/Mcp/McpToolHandlers.cs:1206-1210 (ExecuteBatchQuery catch) — exceptions are recorded per entry; the response has no top-level field describing the batch's failure mode.
Impact
- Clients implementing retry logic over a batch must guess: retry just the failed entries (correct for isolated failures, wasteful for cascading), or retry the entire batch (correct for cascading, redundant for isolated).
- Logs of partial failures are harder to interpret because the cause is implicit.
Proposed direction
Add a top-level field, e.g. failure_scope, to the batch response with values like:
"none" — all entries succeeded"isolated" — failures occurred but each entry was attempted and failed independently"cascading" — a transient failure mid-batch prevented later entries from running (and they're returned as errored or omitted)
When cascading, also return cascade_started_at_index. Document the field in the MCP tool description.
Repro env
- Branch:
main @ 2ee912d (release v1.21.0)
Summary
batch_queryreturns per-entry success/failure but does not signal whether failures are isolated (each entry failed on its own merits) or cascading (something happened mid-batch and the rest were never attempted). Without that distinction, a client cannot tell "5 succeeded, 5 failed because each had bad args" from "5 succeeded, 5 failed because the DB connection died after entry 5".Evidence
src/CodeIndex/Mcp/McpToolHandlers.cs:1206-1210(ExecuteBatchQuery catch) — exceptions are recorded per entry; the response has no top-level field describing the batch's failure mode.Impact
Proposed direction
Add a top-level field, e.g.
failure_scope, to the batch response with values like:"none"— all entries succeeded"isolated"— failures occurred but each entry was attempted and failed independently"cascading"— a transient failure mid-batch prevented later entries from running (and they're returned as errored or omitted)When
cascading, also returncascade_started_at_index. Document the field in the MCP tool description.Repro env
main@ 2ee912d (release v1.21.0)