Hmbown/CodeWhale · error

agent profile must be a simple token

Error message

agent profile {} {field} must be a simple token

What it means

Token fields in agent profiles must be simple tokens: no surrounding whitespace and every character must satisfy is_agent_profile_token_char. A value that trims differently than itself or contains disallowed characters (spaces, punctuation, unicode) is rejected.

Solutions

1. Rewrite the value using only simple token characters (letters, digits, hyphens/underscores — see is_agent_profile_token_char)
2. Remove leading/trailing whitespace from the field
3. Move any descriptive text into a comment or a display-name field that is not token-validated

Example fix

// before
id = "My Research Agent"

// after
id = "my-research-agent"

fn is_simple_token(s: &str) -> bool {
    let t = s.trim();
    t == s && !t.is_empty() && t.chars().all(|c| c.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || c == '-' || c == '_')
}
if !is_simple_token(&profile.id) { eprintln!("id must be a simple token"); }

fn is_simple_token(s: &str) -> bool {
    let t = s.trim();
    t == s && !t.is_empty() && t.chars().all(|c| c.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || c == '-' || c == '_')
}

match result {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("must be a simple token") => {
        eprintln!("rewrite the field using only letters, digits, hyphens, underscores");
    }
    other => other?,
}

When it happens

Trigger: An agent profile field such as id = "my agent" (space inside), id = " researcher" (leading space), or containing characters like '/' or ':' passed through validate_agent_profile_token from load_agent_profile_identity_file or agent_profile_from_toml.

Common situations: Human-readable display names put into id fields ('My Research Agent!'); pasted values carrying leading/trailing whitespace; ids copied from paths or model strings containing slashes.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid id" errors: invalid identifier format — why libraries reject IDs before lookup, and how to fix them — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

• agent profile cannot be empty
• agent profile model must be a visible model id without…
• agent profile may not disable approval_required
• agent profile may not request allow_shell=true
• agent profile may not request trust=true

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0676ce2bf1967134. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/fleet/profile.rs:528

            );
        }
        if permissions.approval_required == Some(false) {
            bail!(
                "agent profile {} may not disable approval_required",
                path.display()
            );
        }
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn validate_agent_profile_token(path: &Path, field: &str, value: &str) -> Result<()> {
    let trimmed = value.trim();
    if trimmed.is_empty() {
        bail!("agent profile {} {field} cannot be empty", path.display());
    }
    if trimmed != value || !trimmed.chars().all(is_agent_profile_token_char) {
        bail!(
            "agent profile {} {field} must be a simple token",
            path.display()
        );
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn validate_agent_profile_model_hint(path: &Path, value: Option<&str>) -> Result<()> {
    let Some(value) = value else {
        return Ok(());
    };
    if !is_model_hint(value) {
        bail!(
            "agent profile {} model must be a visible model id without whitespace or secrets",
            path.display()
        );
    }
    Ok(())

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