BerriAI/litellm · error · ValueError

Unsupported file input type: {type(file_input)}. Expected pa

Error message

Unsupported file input type: {type(file_input)}. Expected pathlib.Path, bytes, or a file-like object.

What it means

Type guard at the end of the OCR file-input chain: the value is neither Path, bytes, nor a readable file-like object, so its bytes cannot be obtained. The received type is listed alongside the accepted shapes.

Source

Thrown at litellm/ocr/main.py:538

        file_path: Final = str(file_input)
        if not os.path.isfile(file_path):
            raise FileNotFoundError(f"File not found: {file_path}")
        mime_type = get_mime_type(file_path)
        file_name = os.path.basename(file_path)
        with open(file_path, "rb") as f:
            file_bytes = f.read()
    elif isinstance(file_input, bytes):
        file_bytes = file_input
    elif isinstance(file_input, IOBase) or hasattr(file_input, "read"):
        if hasattr(file_input, "name"):
            file_name = getattr(file_input, "name", None)
            if file_name:
                mime_type = get_mime_type(file_name)
        file_bytes = file_input.read()
        if isinstance(file_bytes, str):
            file_bytes = file_bytes.encode("utf-8")
    else:
        raise ValueError(
            f"Unsupported file input type: {type(file_input)}. Expected pathlib.Path, bytes, or a file-like object."
        )

    if not file_bytes:
        raise ValueError("File is empty or could not be read")

    if "mime_type" in document:
        mime_type = document["mime_type"]

    if not _MIME_PATTERN.match(mime_type):
        raise ValueError(f"Invalid MIME type: {mime_type}")

    base64_data: Final = base64.b64encode(file_bytes).decode("utf-8")
    data_uri: Final = f"data:{mime_type};base64,{base64_data}"

    if mime_type.startswith("image/"):
        verbose_logger.debug(
            "OCR file input: Converted file to image_url data URI (mime=%s, size=%s bytes, name=%s)",

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

1. Convert the input to pathlib.Path, bytes, or a file-like object before passing it.

Example fix

from pathlib import Path; file_input = Path('doc.pdf')

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at litellm/ocr/main.py:538 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/235d223706f687c3. Report an issue: GitHub.