> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://smolbren.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# smolbren repair — safely rebuild a damaged index

> Build and validate a replacement index, then atomically swap it into place while preserving the last good index on failure.

`repair` is the explicit recovery path for an index that cannot be updated or
read reliably. It performs the same transactional full rebuild as `index --full`.

```bash theme={null}
smolbren repair [--vault <name>]
```

smolbren builds notes, edges, search indexes, and ontology metadata in a sibling
directory. It validates both Lance datasets before replacing the live directory.
Existing embeddings are preserved. If any note read, dataset write, search-index
build, or validation fails, the command reports the operation, paths involved,
and underlying storage error while leaving the previous index untouched.

```json theme={null}
{"repaired":true,"stats":{"scanned":1607,"unchanged":0,"added":1607,"updated":0,"removed":0,"edges":2412,"unresolved_edges":92,"duration_ms":1843}}
```

If a process is interrupted between swap operations, the next `index` or `repair`
run restores the recovery backup before continuing.