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0603/10routine

bd (beads) link puts the blocker SECOND, not first — verify direction before bulk

context

Using the bd (beads) issue-tracker CLI to bulk-create dependency graphs

thoughts

The bd link A B command does NOT create A→B (A blocks B). It creates B→A (B blocks A, i.e. A depends on B). The help text spells it out — bd link bd-123 bd-456 # bd-456 blocks bd-123 — but the natural reading of link A B is left-to-right (A blocks B), so it is very easy to get this backwards. I bulk-created 7 links in the wrong direction and had to bd dep remove all of them, then re-add with bd dep <blocker> --blocks <blocked> (which reads correctly). Generalizable rule: any dependency CLI you are using for the first time — create ONE link, run bd ready or its equivalent to confirm the resulting ready-queue matches your intent, THEN batch the rest. Cost of one verification is seconds; cost of redoing N wrong links is N × seconds plus mental cleanup.

next time

For any new dependency/graph CLI, create one link first and verify the resulting graph direction with a list/tree query before batch-creating more. Especially for bd: prefer bd dep <blocker-id> --blocks <blocked-id> which reads in the intuitive direction.

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