Hmbown/CodeWhale · error

Model name cannot be empty

Error message

Model name cannot be empty

What it means

`codewhale model set <model>` trims the argument and refuses an empty string: an empty default model would break every later model resolution, so Codewhale validates before saving. Note that after this check the value is canonicalized (`pro`/`deepseek-v4pro` → `deepseek-v4-pro`, `flash` → `deepseek-v4-flash`, `auto` passes through) and persisted to config.

Source

Thrown at crates/cli/src/lib.rs:4270

                    "--provider".to_string()
                } else {
                    provider_source_label(resolved_runtime.provider_source)
                }
            );
            println!(
                "model_source: {}",
                if queried.is_some() {
                    "argument"
                } else {
                    resolved_runtime.model_source.as_str()
                }
            );
            Ok(())
        }
        ModelCommand::Set { model } => {
            let trimmed = model.trim();
            if trimmed.is_empty() {
                bail!("Model name cannot be empty");
            }
            let canonical = match trimmed.to_ascii_lowercase().as_str() {
                "pro" | "deepseek-v4pro" => "deepseek-v4-pro",
                "flash" | "deepseek-v4flash" => "deepseek-v4-flash",
                "auto" => "auto",
                _ => trimmed,
            };
            store.config.default_text_model = Some(canonical.to_string());
            store.save()?;
            println!("Default model set to '{canonical}'");
            Ok(())
        }
    }
}

/// The TUI passthrough a thread subcommand delegates as, if it delegates.
///
/// Exhaustive on purpose: a future `ThreadCommand` variant that starts a

View on GitHub (pinned to 0c42157ee5)

Solutions

1. Pass a concrete model name (e.g. `deepseek-v4-pro`) or an alias (`pro`, `flash`, `auto`)
2. Fix the script: default the variable first, e.g. `MODEL=${MODEL:-auto}`
3. To clear a default model, unset the config key rather than setting an empty one

Example fix

# before
$ MODEL= codewhale model set "$MODEL"
# Model name cannot be empty

# after
$ MODEL=${MODEL:-auto} codewhale model set "$MODEL"

#!/usr/bin/env bash
model="${MODEL:-}"
model="$(printf '%s' "$model" | tr -d '[:space:]')"
[ -n "$model" ] || model="auto"
codewhale model set "$model"

fn is_valid_model_name(name: &str) -> bool {
    !name.trim().is_empty()
}

When it happens

Trigger: `codewhale model set ""`, `codewhale model set " "`, or scripts passing an unset shell variable (`MODEL=` or `$UNDEFINED`) as the model name.

Common situations: Shell scripts with unbound/empty variables; CI overriding the model with an empty string; users trying to 'reset' the model by setting it to empty.

Related errors

• unknown field '{field_key}' for built-in provider '{provider
• unknown field '{field_key}' for custom provider '{provider_i
• Unrecognized --provider {provider_arg:?}. Known providers: {
• The Codewhale service returned an account without an ID
• Codewhale account API base URL must not contain a query or f

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@0c42157ee5 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/46d65065f8684ef0. Report an issue: GitHub.