docs agent failed: timed out waiting for docusaurus dev server to start

Not specified by the original author.

docs agent failed: timed out waiting for docusaurus dev server to start

TL;DR

Time a manual start to learn how long it really takes, clear the usual blockers like stale cache and occupied ports, then raise the agent's wait to a multiple of the measured time. Docusaurus cold starts on big sites can take minutes; the agent's default wait gives up before the ready message ever prints.

The error

docs agent failed: timed out waiting for docusaurus dev server to start

Steps

1. Time a manual start and watch for the success message:

time npm run start

Expected: you know the real startup time on this machine with this site.

2. Clear the common blockers. Remove the stale build cache, confirm the port is free, and check the node version meets the site's requirement:

rm -rf .docusaurus

Expected: no stale-cache errors and no port-in-use failure in the output.

3. Raise the agent's startup timeout to 2 to 3 times the measured time, and make it wait for the ready log line rather than a fixed sleep.

Expected: the agent proceeds only after the server is actually up.

4. For repeated runs, keep one warm server alive across tasks instead of restarting per task.

Expected: later tasks skip the cold start entirely and the timeout never comes into play.

Use this when

• the agent gives up on the dev server before it is ready, but a manual start works
• timeouts started as the site grew with more pages, versions, or locales
• the agent uses a fixed sleep instead of waiting for the ready message

Not for this skill when

• the dev server crashes with an error instead of starting slowly
• the failure is in the production build, not the dev server
• the server starts fast by hand too (look for an environment difference)

Variant phrasings

docusaurus start too slow for agent timeout

Measure first; the fix is a longer wait, not a faster start.

dev server never ready in automation

Wait on the ready log line, not on a timer.

agent cannot reach docusaurus dev server

Distinguish slow start (this skill) from port-in-use or crash (different fixes).

Why it happens

Cold starts compile the whole site: every page, version, and locale. Agents with short fixed waits poll a server that is not listening yet, declare failure, and sometimes leave a half-started process holding the port for the next attempt.

Edge cases

• A port held by a zombie process makes every start fail fast, not slow. Read the error: port-in-use is a different problem than slow start.
• Internationalized and versioned sites multiply startup cost. Measure on the real config, not a minimal one.
• Waiting on the wrong log line can still race. Wait for the docusaurus ready message specifically, not an intermediate bundler line.
• Memory-constrained sandboxes make cold starts much slower than on a dev machine. Measure in the same environment the agent uses.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_F8C5uZzt1ciaUSdXO81Ufw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_F8C5uZzt1ciaUSdXO81Ufw

Thread query: docs agent failed: timed out waiting for docusaurus dev server to start

TL;DR: Time a manual start to learn how long it really takes, clear the usual blockers like stale cache and occupied ports, then raise the agent's wait to a multiple of the measured time. Docusaurus cold starts on big sites can take minutes; the agent's default wait gives up before the ready message ever prints.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Stop doing full rebuilds: index only changed files, parallelize the workers, and give the step a longer timeout with retries. Full-corpus indexing grows with repo size, so on a large repo it will always eventually exceed a fixed timeout. Incremental indexing keeps each run roughly constant time.

docs agent failed: search index rebuild timed out on large repo

Steps

1. Measure the step: time the index rebuild on the full repo and compare against the agent's timeout. Expected: you get a number, so the fix is sized to reality instead of guessed.
2. Switch to incremental indexing: configure the search plugin to reindex only added, changed, or deleted files since the last build. Expected: the index step drops from minutes to seconds on typical runs.
3. Parallelize if the indexer supports workers: raise the worker count to match available CPUs. Expected: near-linear speedup on the unchanged full-rebuild path.
4. Raise the timeout and add a retry: set the agent's step timeout comfortably above the measured p95 build time, with one retry on timeout. Expected: transient slow runs pass instead of failing the whole docs job.
5. If the repo is huge even incrementally, move indexing out of the agent run: build the index in CI, store it as an artifact, and have the agent download it. Expected: the agent's docs step no longer indexes at all.

Use this when

• the docs search index step times out on large repos
• the built site has a stale or empty search index after agent runs
• index rebuild time grows with every release

Not for this skill when

• search is broken but the index builds fine (query or frontend bug)
• the whole docs build times out, not just indexing (build performance problem)
• the index is small and still slow (misconfiguration, not scale)

Variant phrasings

• docs search index build timed out
• search index rebuild too slow on monorepo
• agent timed out building docs search index

Why it happens

Full rebuilds re-read and re-tokenize every page on every run, so index time scales with total corpus size while the agent's timeout stays fixed. Large repos cross that line and the step dies at the same point every run, usually leaving a half-written index behind.

Edge cases

• A half-written index from a killed run can corrupt search: delete the partial index before retrying.
• Incremental indexes can drift if files change outside the watcher: run a full rebuild on a schedule (nightly or weekly) as a safety net.
• Raising the timeout without fixing the scaling just moves the failure to the next growth spurt.
• Some indexers hold the whole index in memory: watch memory, not just time, on very large corpora.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstpJUq4sUB3oAuyMUKr3UDg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstpJUq4sUB3oAuyMUKr3UDg

Thread query: docs agent failed: search index rebuild timed out on large repo

TL;DR: Stop doing full rebuilds: index only changed files, parallelize the workers, and give the step a longer timeout with retries. Full-corpus indexing grows with repo size, so on a large repo it will always eventually exceed a fixed timeout. Incremental indexing keeps each run roughly constant time.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Verify the search index step runs in the deploy pipeline and rebuild it fully. Check the index artifact contains the new pages before publishing. For Algolia, confirm the crawler config includes the new routes.

The exact error

docusaurus search index missing new pages

Steps

1. Check the index artifact Download or inspect the built search index and grep for the new page titles. Success check: You know whether the index or the deploy is stale.

2. Force a full reindex Clear the index cache and rebuild so the index regenerates from the current page set instead of incrementally. Success check: The fresh index contains every current page.

3. Fix the pipeline step Ensure the deploy pipeline runs the index build after the content build, not from a cached artifact. Success check: Every deploy produces a fresh index from current content.

4. Verify search end to end Deploy to preview and search for a new page title in the site search box. Success check: New pages are findable through site search.

When to use

• Use when new docs pages are missing from site search after deploy.
• Use when an agent owns the docs deploy pipeline.

When not to use

• Not for pages missing from the site entirely (build problem, not index).
• Not for Algolia quota or API key errors (different failure).

Why it happens

Search indexes are build artifacts with their own caching. An incremental or cached index silently omits new pages while the site itself is current, so the deploy looks fine until someone searches.

Edge cases

Preview deploys should run the same index pipeline as production; otherwise search is only verified where nobody looks. For Algolia DocSearch, the crawler runs on its own schedule and needs a manual trigger after structural changes.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_0UUF94whHVVEvt-SwxUmXg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_0UUF94whHVVEvt-SwxUmXg

Thread query: docs agent's docusaurus search index missing new pages after deploy

TL;DR: Verify the search index step runs in the deploy pipeline and rebuild it fully. Check the index artifact contains the new pages before publishing. For Algolia, confirm the crawler config includes the new routes.