HKUDS/Vibe-Trading · error · ValueError

title is required

Error message

title is required

What it means

HypothesisRegistry.create requires a non-blank title; the value is stripped and if empty the call is rejected before any record is written. Titles are mandatory identity fields for hypotheses tracked across analysis and backtests.

Solutions

1. Supply a non-blank title (strip it first and check before calling)
2. Add a required-field check in the calling form/API before invoking create

Example fix

# before
registry.create(title="   ", thesis="momentum persists")
# after
registry.create(title="Momentum persistence", thesis="momentum persists")

title = (title or '').strip()
if not title:
    raise ValueError('title required')
registry.create(title=title, thesis=thesis)

def has_title(t) -> bool:
    return isinstance(t, str) and bool(t.strip())

try:
    hyp = registry.create(title=title, thesis=thesis)
except ValueError as exc:
    show_form_error(str(exc))  # 'title is required' / 'thesis is required'

When it happens

Trigger: Calling registry.create(title="", thesis=...) or title=" " (whitespace-only), or forwarding an empty form/UI field into create.

Common situations: User submits an empty title in a CLI/web form, or a script creates hypotheses in a loop and one row has a missing title column.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• audit rows require criterion_id and result
• memory name must not be empty or whitespace-only
• thesis is required
• alpha_id not found
• amount must be a finite number, got

AI-assisted analysis of HKUDS/Vibe-Trading@80ffdda44c (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2e2ee77966281eaf. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at agent/src/hypotheses/registry.py:191

            title: Short hypothesis title.
            thesis: Research thesis or rationale.
            status: Initial lifecycle status.
            universe: Target market or asset universe.
            signal_definition: Signal logic.
            data_sources: Source names.
            skills: Related Vibe-Trading skills.
            invalidation_notes: Initial invalidation notes.

        Returns:
            Created hypothesis.

        Raises:
            ValueError: If title/thesis/status are invalid.
        """
        title = title.strip()
        thesis = thesis.strip()
        if not title:
            raise ValueError("title is required")
        if not thesis:
            raise ValueError("thesis is required")

        records = self.list()
        now = _utc_now()
        hyp = Hypothesis(
            hypothesis_id=_new_hypothesis_id(title, now, {h.hypothesis_id for h in records}),
            title=title,
            thesis=thesis,
            status=_validate_status(status),
            universe=universe.strip(),
            signal_definition=signal_definition.strip(),
            data_sources=_coerce_str_list(data_sources),
            skills=_coerce_str_list(skills),
            invalidation_notes=invalidation_notes.strip(),
            created_at=now,
            updated_at=now,
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to 80ffdda44c)