Troubleshooting & FAQ
Common symptoms, their causes, and how to resolve them when working with LlamaFarm.
CLI & Chat
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
Server is degraded banner | A dependency (Celery, rag-service, Ollama) is slow or offline. | Ensure services are running, restart lf start, inspect logs. |
Service unhealthy (check with lf services status) | One or more services failed to start or crashed. | Run lf services stop, then lf services start to restart. Check logs for errors. |
No response received | Runtime returned an empty stream (model/tool mismatch). | Use --no-rag, switch to an agent handler the model supports, or choose a different model. |
InstructorRetryException: ... does not support tools | You selected structured output but the model lacks tool support. | Set instructor_mode: null and use simple chat, or choose a capable model. |
context deadline exceeded during queries | Long-running HTTP request or server busy. | Increase timeout, retry after the worker finishes, or scale workers. |
Dataset Processing
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
Task timed out or failed: PENDING | Celery worker still ingesting large files. | Wait, then rerun lf datasets process; monitor worker logs. |
| Duplicates skipped | File already processed (hash matches). | Remove the file or ingest new content; duplicates are safe to ignore. |
| Metadata mismatch warnings | Strategy name or database not defined in config. | Update llamafarm.yaml to include the strategy/database. |
Configuration Errors
| Error | Fix |
|---|---|
runtime.provider is not one of ... | Update provider enum or choose a supported value. |
Missing required property runtime.base_url | Provide base_url when using non-default provider endpoints (vLLM, Together). |
llamafarm.yaml not found | Run lf init or set --cwd to a directory containing the config. |
Installation Issues
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
lf command not found after installation | Binary not in system PATH | Ensure /usr/local/bin (or custom install directory) is in your PATH. Run echo $PATH to verify. |
| Installation script fails | Permissions issue or unsupported platform | Try with sudo or check platform compatibility (macOS/Linux supported). Windows users should download lf.exe manually. |
Sessions & State
- Delete
.llamafarm/projects/<namespace>/<project>/dev/contextto reset dev chat history. - Use a new namespace (
lf init --namespace new-team) for isolated experiments. - Pass explicit
session_idto API calls or setLLAMAFARM_SESSION_IDwhen testing stateless flows.
Build & Development Issues
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
nx build docs sqlite I/O error | Nx cache database lock or permission issue | Remove .nx/ cache directory or run with NX_SKIP_NX_CACHE=1. |
| Docker containers fail to start | Port conflicts or missing dependencies | Check if ports 8000/6379/5432 are available. Run lf services stop first, then lf services start. |
| Python module import errors | Virtual environment not activated or dependencies not installed | Run cd server && uv sync or cd rag && uv sync to install dependencies. |
Extensibility Pitfalls
- Forgot to regenerate types after editing
config/schema.yamlorrag/schema.yaml→ runconfig/generate_types.py. - Added a provider/store without updating docs → document how to configure it so others know it exists.
- CLI command not appearing → ensure you added it via
rootCmd.AddCommand()and compiled withgo build.
Still stuck? Ask in Discord or create a discussion.