Sqlite Fts5 Corruption Rebuild

What it does

When your agent uses it

• UPDATE/INSERT fails with stepping
• Database disk image is malformed but PRAGMA integritycheck returns ok
• Only specific records fail to update while others succeed
• Records contain dirty text with tabs

Example prompts

• “database disk image is malformed”
• “stepping, database disk image is malformed”
• “/sqlite-fts5-corruption-rebuild”

Requirements

• Node.js

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Identify FTS5 tables linked to the affected table
2. 2Stop any processes holding the database open (the rebuild requires exclusive access)
3. 3Rebuild the FTS5 index
4. 4Retry the failed operation - it should now succeed.
5. 5Restart your application server.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6487b05. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • sqlite3

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

  • sqlite.org

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Sqlite Fts5 Corruption Rebuild loads about 992 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 139 tokens; SKILL.md has 314 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~139

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~992

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from divinevideo/divine-mobile at commit 6487b05, republished under its MPL-2.0 licence (© divinevideo). 314 words, ~992 tokens.

name

sqlite-fts5-corruption-rebuild

description

Fix SQLite "database disk image is malformed" errors caused by corrupted FTS5 indexes. Use when: (1) UPDATE/INSERT fails with "stepping, database disk image is malformed" but PRAGMA integrity_check returns "ok", (2) Only specific records fail to update while others succeed, (3) Records contain dirty text with tabs, newlines, or unusual characters that were inserted into FTS5-indexed columns. The misleading error message suggests disk corruption, but the actual issue is FTS5 index corruption from malformed text content.

author

Claude Code

version

1.0.0

date

2026-01-23

# Error occurs:
sqlite3 data/tracker.db "UPDATE people SET name = 'More' WHERE id = 11;"
# Error: stepping, database disk image is malformed (11)

# But integrity check passes:
sqlite3 data/tracker.db "PRAGMA integrity_check;"
# ok

# And SELECT works fine:
sqlite3 data/tracker.db "SELECT id, name FROM people WHERE id = 11;"
# 11|More Masajes\t\n\t\tEscort 23 años...

# Fix: Stop server, rebuild FTS5 index
kill $(lsof -ti :3001)
sqlite3 data/tracker.db "INSERT INTO people_fts(people_fts) VALUES('rebuild');"

# Now the update works:
sqlite3 data/tracker.db "UPDATE people SET name = 'More' WHERE id = 11;"
# Success!

© divinevideo, MPL-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .agents/skills/sqlite-fts5-corruption-rebuild of divinevideo/divine-mobile.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6487b05