Hmbown/CodeWhale · error

workspace appears empty after File.list: {}

Error message

workspace appears empty after File.list: {}

What it means

The eval harness walked the workspace root and collected zero files, yet a prior File.list tool call produced non-empty output (eval.rs:550). It treats that combination as inconsistent — files visible to the tool but none on disk under `root` — and fails with the File.list output embedded as evidence.

Source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/eval.rs:550

    let walker = WalkBuilder::new(root)
        .hidden(false)
        .git_ignore(false)
        .git_global(false)
        .git_exclude(false)
        .build();

    for entry in walker {
        let entry = entry.with_context(|| format!("failed to walk {}", root.display()))?;
        if entry.file_type().is_some_and(|t| t.is_file()) {
            files.push(entry.into_path());
        }
    }

    if files.is_empty()
        && let Some(output) = list_output
        && !output.trim().is_empty()
    {
        return Err(anyhow!(
            "workspace appears empty after File.list: {}",
            output.trim()
        ));
    }

    files.sort();

    Ok(WorkspaceSummary {
        root: root.to_path_buf(),
        file_count: files.len(),
        files,
    })
}

fn validate_outputs(
    root: &Path,
    shell_expect_token: &str,
    search_output: Option<&str>,

View on GitHub (pinned to 8880682c63)

Solutions

1. Confirm real files exist under the eval root (`find <root> -type f`)
2. Make the path passed to File.list identical to the eval workspace root
3. Ensure setup steps actually write files before the summary check runs

let count = walkdir::WalkDir::new(&root)
    .into_iter()
    .filter_map(Result::ok)
    .filter(|e| e.file_type().is_file())
    .count();
anyhow::ensure!(
    count > 0,
    "eval root {} has no files on disk",
    root.display()
);

When it happens

Trigger: File.list enumerated a different directory than the eval `root` (absolute vs relative path mismatch); the listed entries were directories only; files exist in a sandboxed/virtual view but were never materialized on the real filesystem the walker sees.

Common situations: Eval workspace root misconfigured; the task's setup step failed silently and wrote nothing; container/host path mapping differs from the path the tool used.

Related errors

• patch context not found in {}: {}
• patch removal mismatch in {}: expected '{}'
• ${name} is unavailable in Workflow scripts: runs must be det
• new Date()/Date() is unavailable in Workflow scripts: runs m
• task(): expected an options object

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@8880682c63 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c9aa9ca4f3b56edf. Report an issue: GitHub.