Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · PersistenceBacklogError

receipt source_sha must be an exact lowercase Git SHA

Error message

receipt source_sha must be an exact lowercase Git SHA

What it means

Raised in validate_receipt (scripts/check-persistence-backlog-budget.py:153-156) when source_sha is not a string or does not fully match SOURCE_SHA_PATTERN ([0-9a-f]{40}). The checker only accepts an exact 40-character lowercase hex SHA-1 commit id, since that string is compared verbatim against `git rev-parse HEAD` for provenance pinning.

Source

Thrown at scripts/check-persistence-backlog-budget.py:156

    *,
    expected_source: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
    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(

View on GitHub (pinned to 8880682c63)

Solutions

1. Regenerate the receipt with scripts/measure-persistence-backlog.py so source_sha is captured verbatim from `git rev-parse HEAD`.
2. Never abbreviate or recase the SHA when moving receipt data.
3. Use a standard SHA-1 object-format repository for measurements (the 40-hex pattern rejects SHA-256 repos).

Example fix

// receipt (before)
"source_sha": "9F86D0818..."
// receipt (after)
"source_sha": "9f86d081884c7d659a2feaa0c55ad015a3bf4f1b"

import re
sha = receipt.get("source_sha")
if not isinstance(sha, str) or not re.fullmatch(r"[0-9a-f]{40}", sha):
    sys.exit("source_sha malformed; recapture from `git rev-parse HEAD` verbatim")

def is_exact_sha(value) -> bool:
    return isinstance(value, str) and re.fullmatch(r"[0-9a-f]{40}", value) is not None

try:
    validate_receipt(receipt)
except PersistenceBacklogError as e:
    if "lowercase Git SHA" in str(e):
        raise RuntimeError("provenance SHA mangled (SHA-256 repo or reformatting); re-measure") from e
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: source_sha recorded as uppercase hex, a short SHA, an empty string or placeholder ("unknown", "dev"), a non-string value, or a 64-hex SHA from a repository using git's SHA-256 object format.

Common situations: Hand-filling provenance fields; tools that abbreviate SHAs; experimental SHA-256 repos; env-var plumbing (CODEWHALE_TEST_PERSISTENCE_BACKLOG_SOURCE_SHA) that dropped or altered the value.

Related errors

• receipt {field} does not match the checked source
• expected revision must be an exact 40-character Git SHA
• {context}: expected 'Name <id+login@users.noreply.github.com
• {context}: right-hand email must be numeric GitHub noreply,
• {path}:{lineno}: expected 'alias = Name <email>'

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@8880682c63 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c3201be68b0c1ba. Report an issue: GitHub.