# `record.format_newer`

A record file in the project was written by a newer Jadpo, in a format this one can't read.

Area 18, [Review and records](/docs/records-and-manifest.md); not declinable; the next step is usually the human's.

## Why Jadpo refuses it

A record is a file Jadpo writes and you commit, such as the identity
registry, which keeps every rename. Each kind of record has a format
number, raised whenever what it holds or its layout changes. A record in
a newer format than this Jadpo knows may hold lines it can't read, and
reading it anyway, or writing it again, could lose them.

So Jadpo never guesses. It stops `jadpo check`, and `jadpo test` and
`jadpo dev` too, until the project runs with a Jadpo that reads the
record.

## What it looks like

Format 2 of the identity registry, written by a later release:


database/identities.jadpo_record (written by `jadpo rename`, `jadpo domain`
or `jadpo fmt --layout`):

```jadpo
// Generated by Jadpo from renames and moves; update it with `jadpo rename`, `jadpo domain` or `jadpo fmt --layout`, never by hand.
record identities 2

entity Todo -> Task
```

```text
error: `database/identities.jadpo_record` was written by a newer Jadpo
 --> database/identities.jadpo_record:2:1
  |
2 | record identities 2
  | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ newer format
  reason: It is in format 2 of the `identities` record, and this Jadpo reads format 1 and older. Reading it anyway could lose what it holds.
  next: Upgrade Jadpo to the version the project uses, then run the command again (human)
  rule: record.format_newer
  help: https://jadpo.dev/docs/errors/record.format_newer

check failed: 1 error, 1 file
```

`(human)` at the end of the `next:` line tells your coding agent to stop
and ask you which fix you want, because the choice is yours to make: it
decides which release of Jadpo everyone on the project runs.

## How to fix it

**If the project should run with the newer Jadpo that wrote the record**,
pin that release. Whoever has it runs this in the project, then commits
`jadpo.lock`:

```sh
jadpo toolchain pin
```

The lock's first line now names that release, such as
`jadpo version 0.1.2`. Your own `jadpo` then runs the pinned release for
this project, fetching it once, so it reads the record. Run the command
that failed again.

Never edit the record back to an older format by hand. A newer format
can hold lines an older Jadpo doesn't know, and they would be lost.

## Related

- [How `jadpo check` keeps records up to date](/docs/what-is-committed-and-why.md#how-jadpo-check-keeps-records-up-to-date)
- [The record format](/docs/what-is-committed-and-why.md#the-record-format)
- [Which jadpo runs](/docs/which-jadpo-runs.md)