`Effect.catchAll` with Selective Retry strange behaviour

[tkowalczyk]

Simple workflow with Selective Retry which should probably work differently - #23 :

const fetchOnChainWorkflow = Workflow.make((taskId: string) =>
    Effect.gen(function* () {
        const workflowCtx = yield* WorkflowContext;

        yield* Effect.log(`Processing workflow ${workflowCtx.workflowName}, with id ${workflowCtx.workflowId}`);

        const mvrv = yield* Workflow.step("MVRV",
            fetchMVRVIdempotent(taskId)
                .pipe(
                    Effect.catchTag("FetchError", (error) =>
                        Effect.fail(
                            new MVRVFailed({ reason: `Status Code: ${error.status}`, taskId: taskId }))
                    ),
                    Workflow.retry({
                        maxAttempts: 3,
                        delay: "2 seconds",
                    })
                ));

        yield* Workflow.step("NUPL",
            fetchNUPLIdempotent(taskId).pipe(
                Effect.catchTag("FetchError", (error) =>
                    Effect.fail(
                        new NUPLFailed({ reason: `Status Code: ${error.status}`, taskId: taskId }))
                )
            )
        );

        yield* Workflow.step("Hash Ribbons",
            fetchHashRibbonsIdempotent(taskId).pipe(
                Effect.catchTag("FetchError", (error) =>
                    Effect.fail(
                        new HashRibbonsFailed({ reason: `Status Code: ${error.status}`, taskId: taskId }))
                )
            )
        );

        yield* workflowCtx.setMeta("completed", Date.now());
    })
        .pipe(
            Effect.catchAll((error) =>
                Effect.gen(function* () {
                    const ctx = yield* WorkflowContext;
                    yield* ctx.setMeta("error", String(error));
                    yield* Effect.logError("Workflow failed", error);
                })
            )),
);

after adding:

.pipe(
            Effect.catchAll((error) =>
                Effect.gen(function* () {
                    const ctx = yield* WorkflowContext;
                    yield* ctx.setMeta("error", String(error));
                    yield* Effect.logError("Workflow failed", error);
                })
            )),

getting in console:

[wrangler:info] GET /workflows/sentiment/onchain 200 OK (59ms)
timestamp=2025-12-10T18:34:48.836Z level=INFO fiber=#48 message="Processing workflow {
  \"_id\": \"Effect\",
  \"_op\": \"OnSuccess\",
  \"effect_instruction_i0\": {
    \"_id\": \"Effect\",
    \"_op\": \"OnFailure\",
    \"effect_instruction_i0\": {
      \"_id\": \"Effect\",
      \"_op\": \"OnSuccess\",
      \"effect_instruction_i0\": {
        \"_id\": \"Effect\",
        \"_op\": \"OnSuccess\",
        \"effect_instruction_i0\": {
          \"_id\": \"Effect\",
          \"_op\": \"Sync\"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}, with id {
  \"_id\": \"Exit\",
  \"_tag\": \"Success\",
  \"value\": \"df13a21a3c6e42fd19799ec74b9bd5c2b26d7ec7159721ef7708b440301c0796\"
}"
timestamp=2025-12-10T18:34:48.837Z level=INFO fiber=#48 message="Fetching data for step MVRV"
timestamp=2025-12-10T18:34:49.059Z level=INFO fiber=#48 message="Response: 429, false"
timestamp=2025-12-10T18:34:49.066Z level=ERROR fiber=#48 message="Workflow failed" message="{
  \"reason\": \"retry\",
  \"resumeAt\": 1765391690684.5813,
  \"stepName\": \"MVRV\",
  \"attempt\": 2,
  \"_tag\": \"PauseSignal\"
}"

Whole code available here

[matthew-sessions]

What is the rational for updating the metadata from the workflow level?

[tkowalczyk]

I would like to know why workflow failed and I am using provided example also the message in console log is not clear for me.
Ideally would be to get the reason why the step failed (catch error) and bubble up