BerriAI/litellm · error · HTTPException

soft_budget cannot be negative. Received

Error message

soft_budget cannot be negative. Received: {data.soft_budget}

What it means

Companion check in _check_team_project_limits: soft_budget < 0 returns HTTP 400 with the received value. soft_budget is the early-warning threshold under max_budget, so negative values are rejected outright.

Solutions

1. Omit soft_budget (null is allowed) or send a non-negative value
2. If no early-warning threshold is wanted, leave soft_budget unset rather than negative
3. Fix the client code that computes soft_budget so it clamps at 0 or omits

Example fix

# before
{"project_alias": "p1", "soft_budget": -5}

# after
{"project_alias": "p1", "soft_budget": 80}

def sanitize_project_payload(data: dict) -> dict:
    sb = data.get("soft_budget")
    if sb is not None and sb < 0:
        raise ValueError(f"soft_budget must be >= 0, got {sb}")
    return data

def is_valid_budget(v) -> bool:
    return v is None or (isinstance(v, (int, float)) and not isinstance(v, bool) and v >= 0)

try:
    await post("/project/new", json=data)
except HTTPStatusError as e:
    if e.response.status_code == 400 and "cannot be negative" in e.response.text:
        data.pop("soft_budget", None)  # unset instead of negative
        retry()
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: POST /project/new or /project/update with "soft_budget": -1 or any negative number.

Common situations: Same sentinel-value mistakes as max_budget: clients defaulting unset numbers to -1, or computed thresholds going negative after budget consumption.

Related errors

• max_budget cannot be negative. Received
• Project max_budget ( ) exceeds team's max_budget ( ). Team
• soft_budget ( ) must be strictly lower than max_budget ( )
• Model ' ' not in team's allowed models. Team allowed…
• project_id is required

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a6233e05d071ec22. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at enterprise/litellm_enterprise/proxy/management_endpoints/project_endpoints.py:148

    Mirrors _check_org_team_limits() from team_endpoints.py.

    Validates:
    - Project models are a subset of Team models
    - Project max_budget <= Team max_budget
    - Project tpm_limit <= Team tpm_limit
    - Project rpm_limit <= Team rpm_limit
    - Budget values are non-negative
    - soft_budget < max_budget
    """
    # --- Budget non-negativity checks ---
    if data.max_budget is not None and data.max_budget < 0:
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=400,
            detail={"error": f"max_budget cannot be negative. Received: {data.max_budget}"},
        )
    if data.soft_budget is not None and data.soft_budget < 0:
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=400,
            detail={"error": f"soft_budget cannot be negative. Received: {data.soft_budget}"},
        )

    # --- soft_budget < max_budget ---
    if data.soft_budget is not None and data.max_budget is not None:
        if data.soft_budget >= data.max_budget:
            raise HTTPException(
                status_code=400,
                detail={
                    "error": f"soft_budget ({data.soft_budget}) must be strictly lower than max_budget ({data.max_budget})"
                },
            )

    # --- Validate project models are a subset of team models ---
    project_models = data.models
    team_models: list[str] = team_object.models or []
    if project_models and len(team_models) > 0:

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