Ship code. Catch bugs. Level up.

Shapeshifter Shrimp

Was a string a second ago. Swears it.

A TypeError, fixed.

Grows into Morphing Prawn → Polymorph Lobster

Nullfish

There's nothing there. That's the problem.

Something was null or undefined, fixed.

Grows into Voidfish → Abyssal Nullshark

Nameless Nudibranch

Nobody declared it. It came anyway.

A ReferenceError: something not defined, fixed.

Syntax Slug

Left a bracket open in 2019.

A SyntaxError, fixed.

Grows into Grammar Sea Hare → Linguist Nudibranch

Off-by-One Octopus

Counts its arms from zero. Gets seven.

An index out of range (RangeError), fixed.

Ouroboros Eel

Calls itself. Calls itself. Calls itself.

Maximum call stack size exceeded, fixed.

Broken Promise Prawn

Said it would resolve. Didn't.

An unhandled promise rejection, fixed.

Heap Leviathan

Ate every byte. Still hungry.

Out of memory, fixed for real (not just a bigger heap).

Shell-less Hermit

Its file was right here a minute ago.

A file that wasn't there (ENOENT), fixed.

Grows into Squatter Hermit → Homeowner Hermit

Locked Limpet

Clamped shut. Asks for permission it'll never get.

Permission denied (EACCES / EPERM), fixed.

Clingy Barnacle

This file is being used by another process. Its.

A file busy or locked by another process (EBUSY), fixed.

Mixed-up Mussel

Thought it was a folder. It was a file.

A file where a folder should be (ENOTDIR / EISDIR), fixed.

Overstuffed Pufferfish

No space left. Not even for air.

A full disk (ENOSPC), fixed.

Closed Clam

Knocked. Nobody home.

Connection refused (ECONNREFUSED), fixed.

Port Squatter

Got there first. Won't move.

A port already in use (EADDRINUSE), fixed.

Grows into Port Warden → Harbour Master

Dawdling Snail

Still on its way.

A timeout, fixed (not just by waiting longer).

Snapped Line

Hung up on you. Rude.

A connection reset or socket hang up, fixed.

Nameless Buoy

Can't find where it's going. Or where it is.

A hostname that wouldn't resolve (ENOTFOUND), fixed.

Border Crab

Your origin isn't on the list.

A CORS error, fixed.

Lost Parcel Crab

Delivered to an address that doesn't exist.

An HTTP 404, fixed.

Meltdown Medusa

Something went wrong. On their end. Probably.

An HTTP 500, fixed.

Two-Headed Crab

Both heads are right. That's the problem.

A merge conflict, resolved.

Grows into Three-Way Crab → Octopus Merge

Bounced Bottle

Sent it. The sea sent it back.

A rejected git push, sorted out.

Gatekeeper Goby

Checks every commit at the door.

A failing pre-commit hook, passed properly.

Lockfile Lobster

Another git process seems to be running. It's this one.

A stuck git index.lock, cleared.

Red Tide

The whole bay went red. Then it didn't.

A red CI build Shellby helped turn green.

Matrix Hydra

Fine on two systems. Bit the third.

A CI matrix red on just one OS, turned green.

Sunken Deploy

Launched. Sank. Refloated.

A failed deploy check, turned green.

Stalled Galleon

No wind. Six hours. Cancelled.

A CI check that timed out, fixed.

The Kraken

Every check, red. Every one, green again.

Legendary: three or more red checks on a PR, all fixed in one push.

Stray Module Minnow

Swam off from node_modules and never came back.

A module that couldn't be found, fixed.

Grows into Module Mackerel → Monorepo Marlin

Tangled Tree Crab

Its peer dependencies have peer dependencies.

A dependency conflict (ERESOLVE and friends), fixed.

Collapsed Castle

Built it. Watched it fall. Built it again.

A failed build, fixed.

Grows into Rebuilt Keep → Citadel

Lint Louse

Small. Annoying. Everywhere.

Lint errors, fixed (not silenced).

Beached Whale

Ran aground on npm run dev.

A dev server that crashed, back up and running.

Grows into Refloated Whale → Humpback of Uptime

Old Salt

Only runs on the version it grew up with.

An unsupported engine or version mismatch, fixed.

Mismatched Mantis Shrimp

Punched a string into a number slot.

A type mismatch the type checker caught, fixed.

Missing-Fin Pipefish

Property 'fin' does not exist on type 'Pipefish'.

A property that doesn't exist on a type, fixed.

Undeclared Urchin

Could not find a declaration file. It is one.

A missing declaration file, fixed.

Anything Anemone

Accepts anything. Trusts nothing.

An implicit any, typed properly.

Optional Oarfish

Possibly undefined. Definitely long.

An "object is possibly undefined" error, fixed.

Hinted Hermit

Its hints and its code disagree.

A Python type-hint error (mypy, pyright), fixed.

Type Tangle

error TS-something. It all looks the same in the kelp.

A TypeScript error, fixed (not suppressed).

Grows into Kelp Knot → Generic Grouper

Keyless Krill

Looked up a key that was never in the dict.

A Python KeyError, fixed.

Wonky Whelk

Four spaces. No, a tab. No, four spaces.

An IndentationError, fixed.

Circular Sea Snake

Imports the module that imports it.

A circular import, untangled.

Attribute Anglerfish

Has no attribute. Has a lot of teeth.

A Python AttributeError, fixed.

Off-Value Oyster

Right type. Wrong value.

A Python ValueError, fixed.

Divide-by-Zero Dab

Shared the pie with nobody.

A division by zero, fixed.

Borrowing Hermit

Hermit crabs borrow shells. Not two at once.

A Rust borrow-checker error, fixed.

Rusty Nautilus

Compiles eventually. Eventually.

A Rust compile error, fixed.

Panicked Prawn

Called unwrap() on None. Is now unwell.

A Rust panic, fixed.

Nil Gopherfish

Dereferenced the void. The void didn't like it.

A Go nil pointer dereference, fixed.

Knotted Eels

All goroutines are asleep. These two especially.

A deadlock, fixed.

Segfault Squid

Touched memory it doesn't own. Inked everywhere.

A segmentation fault, fixed.

Red Snapper

Red. Then green. Then snapped up.

A failing test, passing again.

Grows into Ripening Snapper → Evergreen Snapper

Assertive Lobster

Expected one thing. Received another. Said so loudly.

A failed assertion, passing again.

Mirror Mullet

Doesn't look like it used to.

A snapshot mismatch, fixed (not just re-recorded).

Leaky Clam

Its pearl was an API key. Now it's in .env.

A secret caught before a push and moved somewhere safe.

Barnacled Anchor

Known vulnerabilities. Known, now fixed.

A vulnerable dependency, patched.

Cert Cuttlefish

Its certificate expired at sea.

A TLS certificate error, fixed (without switching checks off).

Flaky Phantom

Fails when you look away. Not any more.

A flaky test, made steady.

Grows into Poltergeist → Banshee

Heisenbug

Observed it. It changed. Caught it anyway.

Legendary: a flake that haunted you for days, gone for good.

Race Wraith

Arrives before itself.

A data race, fixed.

Cache Ghoul

Lives in the cache. Rent-free.

A stale cache, cleared.

Zombie Process

Its parent left. It didn't.

A leftover process that wouldn't let go, laid to rest.

Garbled Jellyfish

Expected JSON. Got a web page.

Text that wouldn't parse as JSON, fixed.

Spinning Top Shell

Rendered. Changed. Rendered. Changed.

A render loop (maximum update depth), fixed.

Hydration Hydroid

Grew one way on the server and another in the browser.

A hydration mismatch, fixed.

Duplicate Dory

Already exists. Swears it's a different fish.

A duplicate key or unique constraint, fixed.

Tableless Turtle

Went to sit at its table. There was no table.

A database table or column that wasn't there, fixed.

Crowded Sardines

Too many requests. Every one of them a sardine.

Rate limited (429 Too Many Requests), fixed.

Castaway Cod

Not a git repository. Not anyone's.

Git outside a repo, or histories that never met, fixed.

Trampled Sand Dollar

Your local changes would be overwritten. It was.

Git refused to overwrite local changes, settled.

Nowhere Narwhal

Points confidently at a branch that isn't there.

A branch, ref or pathspec git couldn't find, fixed.

Docked Whale Shark

Carries every container. Won't leave the dock.

A Docker daemon or image that wouldn't cooperate, fixed.

Mojibake Moray

Its name had one accent. Now it has three odd letters.

A text encoding error (UnicodeDecodeError), fixed.

Idle Isopod

Declared. Never used. Go won't build around it.

A Go variable or import declared and not used, fixed.

Sleepy Seahorse

Dozed off halfway through the test.

A test that timed out, fixed (not just given longer).

Hollow Halibut

All passed. None ran.

A test run that found no tests, fixed.

Turned-Away Turbot

Knocked with the wrong key. Twice.

A 401 or 403 (not allowed in), fixed.

Unset Sea Star

Missing an arm. The arm was an env var.

A missing environment variable or secret, fixed.

Sealed Scallop

Permission denied (publickey). It has a key. Wrong one.

Git or SSH wouldn't authenticate, fixed.

UNDEFINED.

This one isn't in any book.

Not in any habitat. Something glitchy.