fix(buddy): clearer errors for /start 500 (Daily key + DB schema)

[auerbachb]

Cause of POST …/start 500

Most likely one of:

1. DAILY_API_KEY unset in Vercel — createRoom threw a plain Error, which was rethrown and became 500.
2. Prod DB missing daily_room_name / daily_room_url — UPDATE buddy_sessions fails → 500 (often if drizzle-kit push was only run against dev).

Change

• Map those cases to 503 with a specific error string (and log server-side).
• On DB update failure after Daily room exists: delete the orphan Daily room, then return 503.
• Non-DailyApiError from Daily path: 503 instead of 500.

What you should verify on prod

• Vercel Production env: DAILY_API_KEY set.
• Neon production DB has buddy daily room columns (drizzle-kit push with prod POSTGRES_URL or drizzle/buddy_sessions_daily_room_incremental.sql).

After deploy, retry Start — UI should show the API error message via existing ApiError handling.

Made with Cursor

Summary by CodeRabbit

Release Notes

• Bug Fixes
  • Enhanced error handling during shared session startup with clearer diagnostic messages
  • Improved system resilience by gracefully managing configuration and database-related issues during session initialization
  • Better error recovery with specific guidance when problems occur, preventing unhandled exceptions

[vercel]

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
still-point	Ready	Preview, Comment	Apr 14, 2026 4:54pm

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 839aa488-2f31-405d-a733-d6c4a1a1a8be

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 4fa6dd9 and 1915d77.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/app/api/buddy/sessions/[id]/start/route.ts

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The error handling in the buddy session start route was expanded to handle Daily room creation failures (including name-conflict retries, API key issues, and generic errors) and database update failures (with Daily cleanup and specific schema error detection) with controlled HTTP responses instead of throwing exceptions.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Buddy Session Start Error Handling src/app/api/buddy/sessions/[id]/start/route.ts	Expanded error handling for Daily room creation (name-conflict retry, missing API key, generic errors) and wrapped database transition update in try-catch with automatic room cleanup on failure; added regex-based schema error detection (daily_room, does not exist, 42703) to return specific recovery instructions.

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant Client
    participant API as API Route
    participant Daily as Daily API
    participant DB as Database
    
    Client->>API: Start buddy session
    API->>Daily: Create room with prefix
    
    alt Name Conflict (Retry)
        Daily-->>API: Name conflict error
        API->>Daily: Retry with different name
        alt Retry Succeeds
            Daily-->>API: Room created
        else Retry Fails
            Daily-->>API: Error logged
            API-->>Client: 503 (retry failed)
        end
    else Missing DAILY_API_KEY
        Daily-->>API: Error contains DAILY_API_KEY
        API-->>Client: 503 (set DAILY_API_KEY)
    else Generic Error
        Daily-->>API: Other error
        API-->>Client: 503 (unexpected error)
    end
    
    rect rgba(100, 200, 100, 0.5)
        API->>DB: Transition to active state
        alt DB Success
            DB-->>API: Row updated
            API-->>Client: 200 OK
        else DB Schema Error (regex match)
            DB-->>API: Error (daily_room/42703)
            API->>Daily: Delete room (ignoreMissing)
            Daily-->>API: Deletion complete
            API-->>Client: 503 (run schema push)
        else DB Other Error
            DB-->>API: Unexpected error
            API->>Daily: Delete room (ignoreMissing)
            Daily-->>API: Deletion complete
            API-->>Client: 503 (try again)
        end
    end

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Estimated Code Review Effort

🎯 4 (Complex) | ⏱️ ~45 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• feat(buddy): web buddy flow — Daily room, video layout, join errors (#106) #128: Directly modifies the same start route file, addressing Daily room creation and database transition logic.
• feat(daily): Buddy Daily.co primitives (#105) #127: Introduces the Daily API primitives (DailyApiError, deleteRoom, DAILY_API_KEY handling) that these changes depend on.

Poem

🐰 Errors caught with gentle care,
No more exceptions thrown in air!
Try and catch, then cleanup right,
Buddy sessions burn so bright! ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 2 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately summarizes the main change: improved error handling and clearer error messages for the /start endpoint, specifically addressing Daily API key and database schema issues.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/buddy-start-error-handling

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[auerbachb]

Production readiness check for buddy start (per PR #130 notes):

• Extracted required checks from PR body:
  • Vercel Production env var: DAILY_API_KEY
  • Neon prod public.buddy_sessions columns: daily_room_name, daily_room_url
• Verified Vercel Production DAILY_API_KEY exists
  • Blocked in this environment at https://vercel.com/login?next=%2Fdashboard (auth required)
• Verified Neon production schema contains required columns
  • Blocked in this environment at Neon login (auth required)

Exact Neon verification query:

SELECT column_name, data_type
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema='public'
  AND table_name='buddy_sessions'
  AND column_name IN ('daily_room_name','daily_room_url')
ORDER BY column_name;

If schema drift is found, apply incremental SQL from drizzle/buddy_sessions_daily_room_incremental.sql:

ALTER TABLE "buddy_sessions" ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS "daily_room_name" varchar(128);
ALTER TABLE "buddy_sessions" ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS "daily_room_url" text;

Follow-up tracking issue (includes checklist + exact SQL):

• Prod verification for buddy start (PR #130): Vercel DAILY_API_KEY + Neon schema #140

Note: PR #130 is currently open, so code deploy is still required before confirming production behavior of the new 503 error mapping path.

[auerbachb]

Production verification update (confirmed):

• Vercel Production env contains DAILY_API_KEY (presence confirmed)
• Neon production public.buddy_sessions has required columns:
  • daily_room_name (character varying)
  • daily_room_url (text)
• PR fix(buddy): clearer errors for /start 500 (Daily key + DB schema) #130 merged

Environment + schema prerequisites for buddy start are satisfied.