# "Verify a feed reference"

## Symptom

You publish updates through a Swarm feed (an `(owner, topic)` pair).
A consumer reports they can't read the latest update; you want to
confirm whether the current feed payload is retrievable from the
network.

## Diagnose

Pass the feed handle directly — `bee-check` resolves it first, then
probes the resolved chunk reference:

```bash
bee-check feed:<40-hex-owner>:<64-hex-topic> \
  --bee https://my-bee.example \
  --bee https://b.example
```

The output includes a `resolution` block recording the original
handle and the resolved reference:

```
resolved feed:
  owner   1234...abcd
  topic   5678...beef
  ref     c79394...bdc36a

status  Partial
```

Two failure modes look different:

- **Feed lookup itself failed** — error mentions `feeds` endpoint
  and you get no resolution. Probably means the feed has no
  published updates on this Bee's view, or the owner/topic is
  wrong. Re-run against a different `--bee` to rule out a
  single-node visibility issue.
- **Feed resolved fine but the payload is unretrievable** — same
  as any other reference-unretrievable case. Continue with
  `--per-chunk` to see which chunks are missing where.

## Fix

If the resolved reference is the lost-upload case, see [the lost-
upload chapter](./lost-upload.md).

If the feed itself didn't resolve, check that your last update was
actually published — `swarm-cli feed update` returning success isn't
quite the same as the soc chunk being retrievable network-wide. Wait
a few seconds and re-probe; feeds are stored like any other chunk
and propagate through the same neighborhood.
