HKUDS/Vibe-Trading · warning · ValueError

max_bytes must be positive, got {max_bytes}

Error message

max_bytes must be positive, got {max_bytes}

What it means

rotate_if_needed validates its size threshold; max_bytes <= 0 (zero or negative) is rejected because rotation would either never trigger or loop.

Source

Thrown at agent/src/governance/ledger.py:649

    sealed segment's final ``record_hash`` -- so a deletion of an entire segment
    is as detectable as an edit within one. Use
    :func:`verify_chain_with_archives` to check the whole history.

    Args:
        path: Active ledger path.
        max_bytes: Size at or above which the active file is sealed.
        fsync: Whether to fsync the directory after the rename.

    Returns:
        The archive path when a rotation happened, else None.

    Raises:
        ValueError: If ``max_bytes`` is not positive.
        LedgerCorruptionError: If the active chain is broken -- a corrupt
            ledger is sealed by nobody; fix or quarantine it deliberately.
    """
    if max_bytes <= 0:
        raise ValueError(f"max_bytes must be positive, got {max_bytes}")
    if not path.exists() or path.stat().st_size < max_bytes:
        return None

    result = verify_chain(path)
    if not result.ok:
        raise LedgerCorruptionError(result.first_break)

    counter = len(archive_segments(path)) + 1
    archive = path.with_name(f"{path.stem}.{counter:0{ARCHIVE_SUFFIX_WIDTH}d}{path.suffix}")
    path.rename(archive)
    if fsync:
        _fsync_dir(path.parent)
    return archive


def verify_chain_with_archives(path: Path) -> ChainVerificationResult:
    """Verify a ledger's whole history, sealed segments included.

View on GitHub (pinned to 80ffdda44c)

Solutions

  1. Default the config to a sane positive size (e.g. 10 * 1024 * 1024) when unset/0
  2. Validate max_bytes > 0 at config load time with a clear error
  3. Treat 0/negative as 'rotation disabled' in your wrapper and skip the call

Example fix

# before
rotate_if_needed(path, max_bytes=config.max_bytes)  # config.max_bytes == 0
# after
if config.max_bytes and config.max_bytes > 0:
    rotate_if_needed(path, max_bytes=config.max_bytes)
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if max_bytes is None or max_bytes <= 0:
    max_bytes = 10 * 1024 * 1024  # or skip rotation

Type guard

def is_valid_max_bytes(max_bytes: int) -> bool:
    return isinstance(max_bytes, int) and max_bytes > 0

Try / catch

except ValueError as e: if 'max_bytes' in str(e): fall back to the default threshold and retry

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling rotate_if_needed(path, max_bytes=0) or a negative value, often from a config default of 0 meaning 'unset'.

Common situations: Config reads max_bytes from an env var that defaults to 0; unit under test passes -1 as a sentinel; CLI arg parsed as int with missing validation.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of HKUDS/Vibe-Trading@80ffdda44c (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7316d25ddc685d94. Report an issue: GitHub.