Troubleshooting

The key was not found in Polar. Common causes: you used a sandbox key (sandbox keys only work against the sandbox API, not production), the key was typed incorrectly, or the key was revoked after a refund.

Copy the key exactly from your Polar purchase email. If you cannot find your email, retrieve it at polar.sh → Orders → License Keys.

Your licence is already active on 3 machines (the maximum). To activate on a new machine, deactivate an old one first.

node -e "require('vektor-slipstream/vektor-licence').deactivateMachine(process.env.VEKTOR_LICENCE_KEY)"

Go to polar.sh → customer portal → License Keys → remove an activation manually.

Need more than 3 machines? Enterprise licences (10 seats) available — contact [email protected].

Set the VEKTOR_LICENCE_KEY environment variable so it is always available:

export VEKTOR_LICENCE_KEY=YOUR-LICENCE-KEY-HERE

The cache file is at ~/.vektor/licence.json. If missing or corrupted, delete it and re-enter your key at the prompt.

Check your internet connection. Slipstream uses a 30-day offline cache — once activated, it continues working without network access for up to 30 days.

You haven't passed a licence key to createMemory(). Either pass it directly or set the environment variable:

export VEKTOR_LICENCE_KEY=VEKTOR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

const memory = await createMemory({
  agentId:    'my-agent',
  licenceKey: process.env.VEKTOR_LICENCE_KEY, // ← add this
});

The key doesn't exist in Polar's system. Check three things:

1. You're using the key from your purchase confirmation email — not a placeholder like VEKTOR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

2. The key is complete — Polar keys are typically 36+ characters.

3. Your purchase was for Vektor Slipstream specifically. Keys are product-scoped.

If you believe your key is correct, email [email protected] with your order reference.

Vektor couldn't reach the Polar API (no internet, firewall, etc.) but found a valid cached validation from a previous run. The engine will start normally. The cache is valid for 30 days from the last successful validation.

The ONNX model wasn't included in the install. This usually means the package was installed from a broken version. Reinstall:

npm uninstall -g vektor-slipstream
npm install -g ./vektor-slipstream-1.5.8.tgz

Verify the model is present after install:

ls node_modules/vektor-slipstream/models/

You should see model_quantized.onnx (~23MB).

The ONNX runtime couldn't load. This is usually a Node.js version issue. Verify you're on Node 18+:

node --version  # must be ≥ 18.0.0

If on an ARM machine (Raspberry Pi, Apple Silicon), try forcing CPU execution by setting the environment variable:

ONNX_EP=cpu node your-agent.js

Two processes are writing to the same .db file simultaneously. Common causes:

1. Two agent instances with the same dbPath running at once.

2. A previous process crashed mid-write and left a .db-wal lock file.

# Remove stale lock files
rm memory.db-wal memory.db-shm

If running multiple agents, give each its own database file:

const agent1 = await createMemory({ agentId: 'agent-1', dbPath: './agent1.db' });
const agent2 = await createMemory({ agentId: 'agent-2', dbPath: './agent2.db' });

The sqlite-vec vector extension couldn't load for your platform. This is non-fatal — the engine will run without it, but vector similarity search falls back to JS-based cosine similarity (slower on large DBs).

To restore native vector support, ensure the platform package is installed:

# Windows
npm install sqlite-vec-windows-x64

# macOS Apple Silicon
npm install sqlite-vec-darwin-arm64

# Linux
npm install sqlite-vec-linux-x64

The package isn't installed globally. Download the .tgz from the Downloads page and run:

npm install -g ./vektor-slipstream-1.5.8.tgz

If you see Cannot find module 'vektor-memory' — that package name is deprecated. The correct package is vektor-slipstream.