Troubleshooting Zap: Node, Validation, and Run Errors

Most Zap issues fall into a small set of categories. Before diving into specific symptoms, run zap doctor — it checks your local environment against every prerequisite and is always the right first step.

npx @wzrdtech/zap@0.1.0 doctor --json

doctor verifies the following:

Check	What it tests
`node`	Node ≥ 24
`package`	`package.json` present in the current directory
`zap skills`	`agent/skills` directory present
`convex`	`NEXT_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL` configured
`upstash`	`UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL` and `UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN` both set
`supabase`	`NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL` and either `NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY` or `NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY` set
`hyperframes`	HyperFrames CLI available (optional)

Common Issues

Node fails with simdjson or native module error

Cause: Zap requires Node 24.x. Using an older version causes native module compilation failures, including simdjson binding errors.Fix: Install Node 24.x via your version manager (e.g. nvm, fnm, or volta) and confirm the version before re-running any Zap command.

node --version  # must be 24.x
npx @wzrdtech/zap@0.1.0 doctor --json

If doctor reports ok node: Node 24.x, the runtime requirement is satisfied.

`zap validate` finds no recipes

Cause: You are either not running the command from a Zap project root, or no Zap.md recipe files exist yet.Fix: Run zap validate from a directory that contains agent/skills/zap-*/Zap.md. Alternatively, pass the path to a specific recipe file directly:

npx @wzrdtech/zap@0.1.0 validate agent/skills/zap-world-cup-entrance/Zap.md

If no skills exist yet, scaffold one first with zap new <slug>.

Live run refuses to start

A live run can be blocked for three distinct reasons. Work through each check in order:

Missing --live flag. By design, all CLI runs default to mock mode. You must explicitly opt in:
```
npx @wzrdtech/zap@0.1.0 run Zap.md --live --input PROMPT="test"
```
Quote exceeds budget.cap_usd. Before executing, Zap estimates total spend across all steps and rejects the run if the quote exceeds the recipe cap:
```
Run quote $X.XX exceeds recipe cap $Y.YY.
```
Lower the step count, shorten duration_s values, or raise budget.cap_usd in the recipe frontmatter.
Provider keys unavailable. Live runs require valid provider credentials stored in Supabase secrets or present as environment variables. Confirm keys are saved at /settings before retrying.

Supabase secrets return empty or 401

Cause: The /api/secrets endpoint returns configured: true as soon as the Supabase public environment variables are present — but that only means the client is initialised, not that a user is authenticated. Listing, saving, deleting, or revealing secret values all require a valid Supabase bearer JWT.Fix: Connect your wallet at /settings to authenticate. Once authenticated, the JWT is attached to subsequent secret API calls automatically.Note: If you see configured: true in the doctor output but secret operations still fail, the issue is authentication — not configuration.

HyperFrames stitch step fails

Cause: A recipe step uses stitch.engine: hyperframes, but npx hyperframes --version fails or is not installed in the current environment.Behavior: Zap does not hard-fail the entire run. Instead, it falls back to the local stitch path and records the fallback error on the affected step in the run result.Fix options:

If HTML composition via HyperFrames is required, install the HyperFrames CLI and verify it:
```
npx hyperframes --version
npx @wzrdtech/zap@0.1.0 doctor
```
If HyperFrames is not needed, switch the recipe to engine: auto or engine: local in the stitch step configuration to avoid the check entirely.

Recipe validation fails with undeclared input error

Cause: A prompt file referenced by a step uses a {VARIABLE} placeholder that is not declared in the inputs map of the Zap.md frontmatter. Validation is strict — every {UPPER_CASE} token in a prompt must have a corresponding inputs entry.Example error:

Step initial_gen references undeclared input {SELFIE}.

Fix: Add the missing variable to the inputs map in your recipe frontmatter:

inputs:
  SELFIE:
    label: "Selfie image"
    type: image
    required: true

Mock run output URL is mock:// not a real URL

This is expected behavior for mock runs. When --live is not passed, Zap returns a deterministic placeholder URL of the form:

mock://zap/<slug>/<runId>/Zap.mp4

This placeholder is written to .zap/runs/<runId>/result.json and is intentional — no provider is called and no real media is generated.Real output URLs are only returned from live provider runs (zap run Zap.md --live).

`zap lint` warns about live provider default

Cause: zap lint checks whether defaults.provider in the recipe frontmatter is set to mock. If it is set to any live provider (e.g. gmi, fal), lint emits a warning:

defaults.provider is live; mock is safer for published templates.

Fix for published templates: Set the provider default to mock so that contributors do not accidentally incur charges when testing:

defaults:
  provider: mock

To silence the warning without changing the recipe: Set the ZAP_LINT_ALLOW_LIVE_DEFAULT=1 environment variable before running lint.

If zap doctor passes all checks but issues persist, run npm run typecheck and npm test from the project root. These catch source-level type errors and unit test failures that the environment checks do not cover.

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Troubleshooting Zap: Node, Validation, and Run Errors

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