HKUDS/Vibe-Trading · error · RegistryError

{path.name}: __alpha_meta__ must be dict, got {type(raw).__n

Error message

{path.name}: __alpha_meta__ must be dict, got {type(raw).__name__}

What it means

If __alpha_meta__ literal_evals successfully but is not a dict (e.g. a list, tuple, or string), RegistryError reports the actual type. AlphaMeta is a strict frozen pydantic model, so it must be constructed from a dict.

Source

Thrown at agent/src/factors/registry.py:178

    meta_node: ast.expr | None = None
    for stmt in tree.body:
        if not isinstance(stmt, ast.Assign):
            continue
        targets = [t for t in stmt.targets if isinstance(t, ast.Name)]
        if any(t.id == "__alpha_meta__" for t in targets):
            meta_node = stmt.value
            break

    if meta_node is None:
        raise RegistryError(f"{path.name}: __alpha_meta__ assignment not found")

    try:
        raw = ast.literal_eval(meta_node)
    except (ValueError, SyntaxError) as exc:
        raise RegistryError(f"{path.name}: __alpha_meta__ not a literal: {exc}") from exc

    if not isinstance(raw, dict):
        raise RegistryError(f"{path.name}: __alpha_meta__ must be dict, got {type(raw).__name__}")

    try:
        return AlphaMeta(**raw)
    except ValidationError as exc:
        raise RegistryError(f"{path.name}: AlphaMeta validation failed: {exc}") from exc


def _safe_yaml_load(path: Path) -> Any:
    """yaml.safe_load with hard 5 MB size cap (defence in depth)."""
    import yaml  # local import keeps registry import-light

    size = path.stat().st_size
    if size > _MAX_YAML_BYTES:
        raise RegistryError(f"{path.name}: {size}B exceeds {_MAX_YAML_BYTES}B YAML cap")
    text = path.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
    return yaml.safe_load(text)

View on GitHub (pinned to 80ffdda44c)

Solutions

1. Rewrite __alpha_meta__ as a dict literal {key: value}
2. Check the error message for the actual type found

Example fix

# before
__alpha_meta__ = [('alpha_id', 'x')]
# after
__alpha_meta__ = {'alpha_id': 'x'}

raw = ast.literal_eval(meta_expr)
assert isinstance(raw, dict), f'__alpha_meta__ must be dict, got {type(raw).__name__}'

def is_dict_meta(raw: object) -> bool:
    return isinstance(raw, dict)

When it happens

Trigger: __alpha_meta__ = ['alpha_id', 'x'] or any literal that evaluates to a non-dict object.

Common situations: Typos like wrapping keys/values in a list, defining meta as a list of tuples (intending dict(...)), or a stale format from an older schema.

Related errors

• metadata must be a mapping, got {type(self.metadata).__name_
• kind must be a string, got {type(value).__name__}
• amount must be numeric, got {self.amount!r}
• CashFlowSeries members must be CashFlow, got {type(item).__n
• rate must be numeric, got {self.rate!r}

AI-assisted analysis of HKUDS/Vibe-Trading@80ffdda44c (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bbe5197f40f19e2d. Report an issue: GitHub.