Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · anyhow::Error

Invalid approval_policy '{policy}': expected on-request, unt

Error message

Invalid approval_policy '{policy}': expected on-request, untrusted, never, auto, or suggest.

What it means

Config::validate() normalizes approval_policy (trim + ASCII lowercase) and requires one of on-request, untrusted, never, auto, or suggest. Any other string fails validation at startup with this message. Case and surrounding whitespace are tolerated; the keyword itself must match exactly.

Source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/config.rs:4421

            let provider = self.api_provider();
            let known = model_completion_names_for_provider(provider);
            let hint = if known.is_empty() {
                String::new()
            } else {
                format!(" (for example: {})", known.join(", "))
            };
            anyhow::bail!(
                "Invalid default_text_model '{model}' for provider '{}': expected auto or a model ID this provider serves{hint}.",
                provider.as_str()
            );
        }
        if let Some(policy) = self.approval_policy.as_deref() {
            let normalized = policy.trim().to_ascii_lowercase();
            if !matches!(
                normalized.as_str(),
                "on-request" | "untrusted" | "never" | "auto" | "suggest"
            ) {
                anyhow::bail!(
                    "Invalid approval_policy '{policy}': expected on-request, untrusted, never, auto, or suggest."
                );
            }
        }
        if let Some(v) = self.verbosity.as_deref() {
            let normalized = v.trim().to_ascii_lowercase();
            if !matches!(normalized.as_str(), "normal" | "concise") {
                anyhow::bail!("Invalid verbosity '{v}': expected normal or concise.");
            }
        }
        if let Some(mode) = self.sandbox_mode.as_deref() {
            let normalized = mode.trim().to_ascii_lowercase();
            if !matches!(
                normalized.as_str(),
                "read-only" | "workspace-write" | "danger-full-access" | "external-sandbox"
            ) {
                anyhow::bail!(
                    "Invalid sandbox_mode '{mode}': expected read-only, workspace-write, danger-full-access, or external-sandbox."

View on GitHub (pinned to 8880682c63)

Solutions

Set approval_policy to one of: on-request, untrusted, never, auto, suggest (hyphenated, lowercase).
Remove the key entirely if the built-in default is acceptable.
Check for a duplicate approval_policy key elsewhere in the TOML overriding your fix.

Example fix

# before
approval_policy = "on_request"

# after
approval_policy = "on-request"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const APPROVAL_POLICIES: &[&str] = &["on-request", "untrusted", "never", "auto", "suggest"];

fn approval_policy_is_valid(raw: &str) -> bool {
    APPROVAL_POLICIES.contains(&raw.trim().to_ascii_lowercase().as_str())
}

if let Some(p) = &config.approval_policy {
    anyhow::ensure!(approval_policy_is_valid(p), "bad approval_policy");
}

Type guard

fn is_valid_approval_policy(raw: &str) -> bool {
    matches!(
        raw.trim().to_ascii_lowercase().as_str(),
        "on-request" | "untrusted" | "never" | "auto" | "suggest"
    )
}

Try / catch

if let Err(e) = config.validate() {
    if let Some(rest) = e.to_string().strip_prefix("Invalid approval_policy ") {
        // `rest` names the offending value; offer the allowed list and re-validate
    } else {
        return Err(e);
    }
}

Prevention

Use hyphens, not underscores, in policy keywords.
Generate config from constants/enums in tooling instead of hand-typed strings.
Lint committed config.toml files against the allowed vocabulary in CI.

When it happens

Trigger: Writing approval_policy = "on_request" (underscore instead of hyphen), "always", "ask", or "when-needed" in config.toml; passing a policy string copied from a different tool's config.

Common situations: Migrating configs from other CLI agents whose policy vocabularies differ; hyphen/underscore confusion; abbreviations like 'req' typed from memory.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@8880682c63 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/279e5c814d90d392. Report an issue: GitHub.