Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · PersistenceBacklogError

receipt source_dirty must be boolean

Error message

receipt source_dirty must be boolean

What it means

Raised in validate_receipt (scripts/check-persistence-backlog-budget.py:157-158) when type(receipt["source_dirty"]) is not bool. The flag records whether the source tree was dirty at measurement time and is later compared with a live `git status`, so a JSON true/false boolean is mandatory — the check uses exact type() to reject Python/JSON look-alikes.

Source

Thrown at scripts/check-persistence-backlog-budget.py:158

    require_clean_source: bool = False,
) -> None:
    missing = [field for field in REQUIRED_RECEIPT_FIELDS if field not in receipt]
    if missing:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError(
            "receipt missing required field(s): " + ", ".join(missing)
        )
    if receipt["document_kind"] != RECEIPT_KIND:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError(f"receipt document_kind must be {RECEIPT_KIND}")
    if receipt["schema_version"] != SCHEMA_VERSION:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError("receipt schema_version changed")
    for field, expected in FIXTURE.items():
        validate_frozen_field(field, receipt[field], expected)
    if not isinstance(receipt["source_sha"], str) or not SOURCE_SHA_PATTERN.fullmatch(
        receipt["source_sha"]
    ):
        raise PersistenceBacklogError("receipt source_sha must be an exact lowercase Git SHA")
    if type(receipt["source_dirty"]) is not bool:
        raise PersistenceBacklogError("receipt source_dirty must be boolean")
    for field, prefix in (("rustc_version", "rustc "), ("cargo_version", "cargo ")):
        if not isinstance(receipt[field], str) or not receipt[field].startswith(prefix):
            raise PersistenceBacklogError(f"receipt {field} must be a version string")
    validate_frozen_field("build_profile", receipt["build_profile"], "test")
    validate_frozen_field("sample_count", receipt["sample_count"], 1)
    if expected_source is not None:
        for field in (
            "source_sha",
            "source_dirty",
            "rustc_version",
            "cargo_version",
            "build_profile",
            "sample_count",
        ):
            if receipt[field] != expected_source[field]:
                raise PersistenceBacklogError(
                    f"receipt {field} does not match the checked source"
                )

View on GitHub (pinned to 8880682c63)

Solutions

1. Fix the Rust receipt writer to emit a real JSON boolean (parse the env string with =="true").
2. Regenerate the receipt after the fix.
3. Never hand-edit source_dirty to work around a dirty-tree failure — clean the tree instead.

Example fix

// receipt (before)
"source_dirty": "false"
// receipt (after)
"source_dirty": false

if type(receipt.get("source_dirty")) is not bool:
    sys.exit("source_dirty must be a JSON boolean; fix the emitter's env parsing")

def is_strict_bool(value) -> bool:
    return type(value) is bool

try:
    validate_receipt(receipt)
except PersistenceBacklogError as e:
    if "source_dirty must be boolean" in str(e):
        raise RuntimeError("emitter leaked a string boolean; parse env with == 'true'") from e
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: The emitter storing the string "true"/"false" instead of a boolean (the measure script passes the env var CODEWHALE_TEST_PERSISTENCE_BACKLOG_SOURCE_DIRTY as lowercase text and the Rust test must parse it back to a bool); null; 0/1 integers.

Common situations: Env-var provenance plumbing where the string reaches the JSON unconverted; hand-edited receipts; serializers that coerce booleans to strings.

Related errors

• rss_supported must be boolean
• Codewhale terminal receipt exceeded its total bound
• Codewhale stream-json line {line_number} was not an object
• invalid {label} {path}: {error}
• {label} must be a JSON object

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@8880682c63 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e8ac6c5a5fdebbd3. Report an issue: GitHub.