From 34076b107bf66592fdde6928912ce4c9d064039e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Chris Sherwood <chris@crosstalksolutions.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:11:30 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix: prevent embedding retry storm when Ollama is not
 installed

When Ollama isn't installed, every ZIM download dispatches embedding jobs
that fail and retry 30x with 60s backoff. With many ZIM files downloading
in parallel, this exhausts Redis connections with EPIPE/ECONNRESET errors.

Two changes:
1. Don't dispatch embedding jobs when Ollama isn't installed (belt)
2. Use BullMQ UnrecoverableError for "not installed" so jobs fail
   immediately without retrying (suspenders)

Closes #351

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 admin/app/jobs/embed_file_job.ts   | 16 ++++++++++++----
 admin/app/jobs/run_download_job.ts | 19 +++++++++++--------
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/admin/app/jobs/embed_file_job.ts b/admin/app/jobs/embed_file_job.ts
index 0c59b32..0c0a12f 100644
--- a/admin/app/jobs/embed_file_job.ts
+++ b/admin/app/jobs/embed_file_job.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { Job } from 'bullmq'
+import { Job, UnrecoverableError } from 'bullmq'
 import { QueueService } from '#services/queue_service'
 import { EmbedJobWithProgress } from '../../types/rag.js'
 import { RagService } from '#services/rag_service'
@@ -42,7 +42,15 @@ export class EmbedFileJob {
     const ragService = new RagService(dockerService, ollamaService)
 
     try {
-      // Check if Ollama and Qdrant services are ready
+      // Check if Ollama and Qdrant services are installed and ready
+      // Use UnrecoverableError for "not installed" so BullMQ won't retry —
+      // retrying 30x when the service doesn't exist just wastes Redis connections
+      const ollamaUrl = await dockerService.getServiceURL('nomad_ollama')
+      if (!ollamaUrl) {
+        logger.warn('[EmbedFileJob] Ollama is not installed. Skipping embedding for: %s', fileName)
+        throw new UnrecoverableError('Ollama service is not installed. Install AI Assistant to enable file embeddings.')
+      }
+
       const existingModels = await ollamaService.getModels()
       if (!existingModels) {
         logger.warn('[EmbedFileJob] Ollama service not ready yet. Will retry...')
@@ -51,8 +59,8 @@ export class EmbedFileJob {
 
       const qdrantUrl = await dockerService.getServiceURL('nomad_qdrant')
       if (!qdrantUrl) {
-        logger.warn('[EmbedFileJob] Qdrant service not ready yet. Will retry...')
-        throw new Error('Qdrant service not ready yet')
+        logger.warn('[EmbedFileJob] Qdrant is not installed. Skipping embedding for: %s', fileName)
+        throw new UnrecoverableError('Qdrant service is not installed. Install AI Assistant to enable file embeddings.')
       }
 
       logger.info(`[EmbedFileJob] Services ready. Processing file: ${fileName}`)
diff --git a/admin/app/jobs/run_download_job.ts b/admin/app/jobs/run_download_job.ts
index 3cc09ad..c7f672e 100644
--- a/admin/app/jobs/run_download_job.ts
+++ b/admin/app/jobs/run_download_job.ts
@@ -82,14 +82,17 @@ export class RunDownloadJob {
             const zimService = new ZimService(dockerService)
             await zimService.downloadRemoteSuccessCallback([url], true)
 
-            // Dispatch an embedding job for the downloaded ZIM file
-            try {
-              await EmbedFileJob.dispatch({
-                fileName: url.split('/').pop() || '',
-                filePath: filepath,
-              })
-            } catch (error) {
-              console.error(`[RunDownloadJob] Error dispatching EmbedFileJob for URL ${url}:`, error)
+            // Only dispatch embedding job if AI Assistant (Ollama) is installed
+            const ollamaUrl = await dockerService.getServiceURL('nomad_ollama')
+            if (ollamaUrl) {
+              try {
+                await EmbedFileJob.dispatch({
+                  fileName: url.split('/').pop() || '',
+                  filePath: filepath,
+                })
+              } catch (error) {
+                console.error(`[RunDownloadJob] Error dispatching EmbedFileJob for URL ${url}:`, error)
+              }
             }
           } else if (filetype === 'map') {
             const mapsService = new MapService()