JuliusBrussee/caveman · error · Error

cannot safely resolve Qwen's effective settings

Error message

cannot safely resolve Qwen's effective settings

What it means

In buildWrapEnv, before any other Qwen handling, the CLI checks agentRouteOverride for command-line flags that change how Qwen loads its configuration. If the user passed a flag/argument combination whose effect on Qwen's effective settings cannot be safely reproduced in the temporary system settings (override.surface === "effective settings"), the wrap aborts fail-closed with this error rather than launching Qwen with settings that could silently bypass or contradict the Caveman route.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/index.ts:9051

  if (agent?.id === "gemini" && wrapMode(gw) === "managed") {
    throw new Error("managed Gemini CLI routing is unsupported because Gemini CLI cannot send separate Caveman and upstream credentials");
  }
  const renderedGw = agent ? attributedGatewayUrl(gw, agent) : gw;
  const env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = {
    ...process.env,
    ...(agent?.injection.method === "native-extension" ? {} : wrapBaseUrlEnv(renderedGw)),
  };
  if (wrapMode(gw) === "managed") {
    const gatewayKey = connectedGatewayAPIKey();
    if (gatewayKey) env.CAVE_API_KEY = gatewayKey;
  }
  if (!agent) return env;
  if (applyClaudeBedrockWrap(env, agent, renderedGw, gw)) return env;
  const routeOverride = agentRouteOverride(agent, agentArgs);
  if (agent.id === "qwen") {
    const override = routeOverride;
    if (override?.surface === "effective settings") {
      throw new Error("cannot safely resolve Qwen's effective settings");
    }
    if (override?.surface === "--safe-mode" && override.reason === "ignores Caveman system settings") {
      throw new Error("Qwen safe mode ignores Caveman system settings");
    }
    // These environment switches outrank settings in pinned Qwen 0.22.3.
    // Keep side-request tools and workflow-spawned agents off in routed mode;
    // corresponding system settings provide the durable second lock.
    env.ENABLE_WEB_SEARCH = "0";
    env.QWEN_CODE_DISABLE_WORKFLOWS = "1";
  }
  if (routeOverride) throw new Error(`${routeOverrideLabel(agent)} ${routeOverride.surface} ${routeOverride.reason}`);
  const inj = agent.injection;
  if (inj.method === "env") {
    for (const [k, raw] of Object.entries(inj.env)) {
      const val = renderTemplate(raw, renderedGw);
      if (val !== "") env[k] = val;
    }
  } else if (inj.method === "config-env-content") {

View on GitHub (pinned to 5184b3d11a)

Solutions

1. Remove the settings-affecting flag from the wrapped invocation and let caveman supply its temporary system settings.
2. If you need custom Qwen settings, edit the layer caveman reads (project/system Qwen settings) instead of overriding via CLI flags.
3. Check `agentRouteOverride` behavior in the CLI version you run; upgrade the CLI if a flag you need should now be supported.
4. For debugging, run the raw qwen binary directly (not through caveman wrap) — but understand it will not be routed/compressed.

Example fix

// before: flag forwarded that overrides effective settings
caveman qwen --settings ./my-settings.json
// after: default resolution via caveman's temp settings
caveman qwen

// Screen forwarded args before invoking the qwen wrap
const settingsFlags = ["--settings", "--config", "-c"];
const args = process.argv.slice(2);
if (args.some((a) => settingsFlags.some((f) => a === f || a.startsWith(f + "=")))) {
  throw new Error("Settings-override flags cannot be forwarded through `caveman qwen`; edit Qwen settings files directly instead.");
}

try {
  execSync("caveman qwen", { stdio: "inherit" });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes("cannot safely resolve Qwen's effective settings")) {
    console.error("Remove settings-override flags from the wrapped qwen invocation.");
    process.exit(1);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `caveman wrap qwen ...` (or `caveman qwen ...`) while passing agent arguments that agentRouteOverride classifies as altering "effective settings" — e.g. flags that point Qwen at alternate settings files or override its settings resolution — so the CLI cannot guarantee the pinned Qwen 0.22.3 settings precedence.

Common situations: Passing Qwen's own settings-selection flags through the wrap; scripts that forward arbitrary flags to the underlying qwen binary via caveman; operator attempts to use a personal settings file while routed, which would defeat managed routing.

Understand the failure class

Background: "mutually exclusive" flag errors: what "can't supply both nx and xx", "--raw is not compatible with -i" and "cannot be used with" mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• cannot safely resolve Qwen's effective OPENAI_API_KEY
• Qwen routed profile is missing ${key}
• cave_harness_model_identity_missing
• cave_stale_lock:${checked.stale.join(",")}: run npm run buil
• cave_runtime_segment_id_collision

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@5184b3d11a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66029235f2536db3. Report an issue: GitHub.