CherryHQ/cherry-studio · error · Error

Invalid command: command cannot be empty

Error message

Invalid command: command cannot be empty

What it means

Thrown by validateCommand() after trimming the command string, when the trimmed result is empty. This distinguishes from the non-empty-string check (error 153): the input was technically a string but contained only whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, newlines). The trimmed command is the return value of validateCommand, so a whitespace-only command would produce an empty executable name.

Source

Thrown at src/main/ai/mcp/McpPackageService.ts:147

 * Commands should be either:
 * 1. Simple command names (e.g., "node", "python", "npx") - looked up in PATH
 * 2. Absolute paths (e.g., "/usr/bin/node", "C:\\Program Files\\node\\node.exe")
 * 3. Relative paths starting with ./ or .\ (relative to extractDir)
 *
 * Rejects commands containing path traversal sequences (..)
 *
 * @param command - The command to validate
 * @returns The validated command
 * @throws Error if command contains path traversal or is invalid
 */
export function validateCommand(command: string): string {
  if (!command || typeof command !== 'string') {
    throw new Error('Invalid command: command must be a non-empty string')
  }

  const trimmed = command.trim()
  if (!trimmed) {
    throw new Error('Invalid command: command cannot be empty')
  }

  // Check for path traversal sequences
  // This catches: .., ../, ..\, /../, \..\, etc.
  if (/(?:^|[/\\])\.\.(?:[/\\]|$)/.test(trimmed) || trimmed === '..') {
    throw new Error(`Invalid command: path traversal detected in "${command}"`)
  }

  // Check for null bytes
  if (trimmed.includes('\0')) {
    throw new Error('Invalid command: null byte detected')
  }

  return trimmed
}

/**
 * Validate command arguments to prevent injection attacks.

View on GitHub (pinned to 726446b54c)

Solutions

1. Set the manifest's command to a real executable name (e.g., 'node', 'python', 'npx', or an absolute path).
2. If using variable substitution, verify the substitution source (user_config) provides a non-empty value.
3. Validate the manifest with a schema that enforces minLength: 1 on the command field.

// Pre-validate that command is not whitespace-only
if (typeof command === 'string' && command.trim().length === 0) {
  throw new Error('Manifest command field cannot be whitespace-only')
}

function isNonEmptyTrimmedString(value: unknown): value is string {
  return typeof value === 'string' && value.trim().length > 0
}

When it happens

Trigger: Called from resolveMcpConfig at line 351. Triggers when the manifest's command field is a string like ' ', '\t\n', or any combination of whitespace-only characters. After performVariableSubstitution, a command like '${user_config.executor}' that resolved to whitespace would also hit this.

Common situations: A manifest author left a placeholder command that was never filled in; variable substitution replaced a template with an empty/whitespace user-config value; copy-paste from a formatted document introduced stray whitespace.

Related errors

• Invalid command: command must be a non-empty string
• Invalid command: path traversal detected in "${command}"
• Invalid command: null byte detected
• Invalid args: must be an array
• Invalid args: argument at index ${index} must be a string

AI-assisted analysis of CherryHQ/cherry-studio@726446b54c (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fbf6b7f9f2eb9ce1. Report an issue: GitHub.