topic-research-worker: Known Failure Modes

Component: topic-research-worker Tags: topic-research-worker,research,feed-discovery,pipeline Author: — Updated: 5/20/2026, 9:28:34 PM

topic-research-worker orchestrates research topics. Listens for research.topic.started and runs the 4-phase discovery pipeline: RSS feed discovery, feed polling setup, initial content fetching, topic completion.

COMMON FAILURES:

1. research.topic.started handler returns non-2xx: Discovery pipeline failed to start. system-event-listener publishes research.topic.started.failed -> ops-tracker creates "Research pipeline failed: {topic_id}" issue. Check topic-research-worker logs immediately.

2. Feed discovery returns zero feeds: No RSS/JSON feeds found for the topic keywords. Check research_feeds table for the topic_id.

3. research.topic.complete never fires: Pipeline started but never completed. Check research_topics table status. Look for research.source.ingested events for the topic_id to gauge progress.

4. research.source.ingested handler in ZIL fails: zil-graph-worker at /events/research-source-ingested returned non-2xx. Neo4j may be unavailable. Check zil-graph-worker (port 3555) and neo4j-kg container.