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Troubleshooting

Web Server Does Not Start from open_narnia_ui

Symptom: The open_narnia_ui tool returns an error like "Could not locate the Narnia web project."

Why it happens: When running via dotnet run, the tool walks up from the MCP server binary directory to find src/NexusLabs.Narnia.Web/NexusLabs.Narnia.Web.csproj. If you've installed the MCP server binary somewhere other than the repo root, auto-detection fails.

Fix: Set NARNIA__WebProjectPath explicitly in your MCP client config:

"env": {
  "NARNIA__WebProjectPath": "C:\\path\\to\\narnia\\src\\NexusLabs.Narnia.Web"
}

Or point it at the directory (the tool will look for NexusLabs.Narnia.Web.csproj inside it).

Web Server Starts But Browser Doesn't Open

Symptom: The tool says "Started the web server but it did not become reachable at http://localhost:5244 within 20 seconds."

Why it happens: Either the server took longer than 20 seconds to start, or the port is blocked. The web server might still be starting in the background.

Fix:

  1. Wait a few seconds and navigate to http://localhost:5244 manually.
  2. Check if something else is already using port 5244 (netstat -an | findstr 5244 on Windows).
  3. Change the port by setting NARNIA__WebUiUrl to a different URL in both the MCP config and the web app's appsettings.json.

Sessions Not Found by Repository or CWD

Symptom: list_sessions_by_repository or list_sessions_by_cwd returns an empty array.

Why it happens: Path and repository matching is exact. The stored cwd must match exactly — including casing and whether it uses forward or backward slashes.

Fix:

  • Use list_recent_sessions first to see actual cwd and repository values stored in the database.
  • Copy the exact value from the results into your next query.
  • On Windows, paths are stored with backslashes — use C:\dev\myproject, not C:/dev/myproject.

.NET 10 SDK Not Found

Symptom: Running dotnet run --project src/NexusLabs.Narnia.McpServer fails with "The required .NET version was not found."

Fix: Install the .NET 10 SDK. The Narnia projects target net10.0 and require the .NET 10 runtime.

Database File Not Found

Symptom: All MCP tools return errors mentioning "unable to open database file" or similar SQLite errors.

Why it happens: The default database path (~/.copilot/session-store.db) does not exist, or Narnia is looking in the wrong location.

Fix:

  1. Confirm the file exists: on Windows, check C:\Users\{your-username}\.copilot\session-store.db.
  2. If it's in a different location, set NARNIA__DatabasePath to the correct absolute path in your MCP config.
  3. If you've never used Copilot CLI, the database won't exist yet — you need to start at least one Copilot CLI session first.

Search Returns No Results

Symptom: search_sessions returns an empty array for queries that should match.

Why it happens: The FTS5 index may not contain the expected content, or the query syntax is incorrect.

Fix:

  • Try a simpler query first: a single common word that should appear in your sessions.
  • Use prefix matching for partial words: auth* instead of authorization.
  • Verify sessions exist with list_recent_sessions — if that also returns nothing, the database path is likely wrong.