bd mol seed

Verify formula accessibility or seed patrol formulas

Overview

The bd mol seed command verifies that formulas are accessible and can be cooked (instantiated). This is useful for verifying system health before patrols or agents attempt to spawn work.

Usage

# Verify all patrol formulas
bd mol seed --patrol

# Verify specific formula
bd mol seed <formula-name>

# Verify with variable substitution
bd mol seed mol-review --var name=test

Arguments

• [formula-name] - Optional formula name to verify. Required unless using --patrol flag.

Options

• --patrol - Verify all patrol formulas (mol-deacon-patrol, mol-witness-patrol, mol-refinery-patrol)
• --var key=value - Variable substitution for condition filtering (can be specified multiple times)
• --json - Output results in JSON format

Formula Search Paths

Formulas are searched in the following order:

1. .beads/formulas/ (project level)
2. ~/.beads/formulas/ (user level)
3. $GT_ROOT/.beads/formulas/ (orchestrator level, if GT_ROOT is set)

What Gets Verified

The seed command checks that:

1. Formula exists in the search path
2. Formula syntax is valid
3. Formula can be resolved (including extends/inheritance)
4. Formula can be cooked to a subgraph structure

Examples

Verify Patrol Formulas

Before starting automated patrols, verify all patrol formulas are accessible:

bd mol seed --patrol

Output:

✓ All patrol formulas accessible

Verify Specific Formula

Check if a custom formula can be used:

bd mol seed mol-feature-workflow

Output:

✓ Formula "mol-feature-workflow" accessible

Verify with Variables

Test formula with specific variable values for condition filtering:

bd mol seed mol-deploy --var environment=production --var region=us-west

JSON Output

With --json flag:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "formula": "mol-feature-workflow"
}

For patrol verification:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "formulas": [
    "mol-deacon-patrol",
    "mol-witness-patrol",
    "mol-refinery-patrol"
  ]
}

Use Cases

Pre-Flight Checks

Use in CI/CD pipelines or agent startup scripts to verify formulas are available:

#!/bin/bash
if bd mol seed --patrol --json | jq -e '.status == "ok"' > /dev/null; then
  echo "Formulas ready, starting patrol"
  bd patrol start
else
  echo "Formula verification failed"
  exit 1
fi

Development Workflow

When developing new formulas, verify they can be loaded before attempting to use them:

# After editing .beads/formulas/mol-custom.formula.json
bd mol seed mol-custom

# If successful, try instantiating
bd mol pour mol-custom --var feature=auth

Debugging Formula Issues

If a formula fails to instantiate, use seed to isolate whether the issue is:

• Formula not found (check search paths)
• Invalid syntax (JSON parsing error)
• Resolution failure (extends chain broken)
• Cooking failure (invalid step structure)

Exit Codes

• 0 - Formula(s) successfully verified
• 1 - Formula not found, invalid syntax, or verification failed

Related Commands

• bd mol show - Display formula structure after cooking
• bd mol pour - Instantiate formula as persistent molecule
• bd mol wisp - Instantiate formula as ephemeral wisp
• bd formula list - List available formulas