BerriAI/litellm · error · ValueError

{self.__class__.__name__} does not support ingesting an exis

Error message

{self.__class__.__name__} does not support ingesting an existing file_id. Upload file data or provide file_url instead.

What it means

Capability guard in the RAG ingestion pipeline: a file_id was given (re-use an existing uploaded file) but this ingestion backend sets supports_existing_file_id=False, so it cannot attach previously uploaded files. Use file_data or file_url with this provider, or switch to a backend that supports file ids (e.g. OpenAI).

Source

Thrown at litellm/rag/ingestion/base_ingestion.py:325

            file_url: URL to fetch file from
            file_id: Existing file ID to use

        Returns:
            RAGIngestResponse with status and IDs

        Raises:
            ValueError: If no input source is provided
        """
        # Step 1: Upload (raises ValueError if no input provided)
        filename, file_content, content_type, existing_file_id = await self.upload(
            file_data=file_data,
            file_url=file_url,
            file_id=file_id,
        )

        try:
            if existing_file_id and not self.supports_existing_file_id:
                raise ValueError(
                    f"{self.__class__.__name__} does not support ingesting an existing file_id. "
                    "Upload file data or provide file_url instead."
                )

            # Step 2: OCR (optional)
            extracted_text: Final = await self.ocr(
                file_content=file_content,
                content_type=content_type,
            )

            # Step 3: Chunking
            chunks: Final = self.chunk(
                text=extracted_text,
                file_content=file_content,
                ocr_was_used=self.ocr_config is not None,
            )

            # Step 4: Embedding (optional - some providers handle this internally)

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

1. Upload file data or provide a file_url instead of an existing file_id for this provider.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at litellm/rag/ingestion/base_ingestion.py:325 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d48118b61e20d233. Report an issue: GitHub.