JuliusBrussee/caveman · error · Error

Codex integration journal lacks owned blocks

Error message

Codex integration journal lacks owned blocks

What it means

The Codex integration journal (~/.caveman/integrations/codex.json) has a codex-config (TOML) operation whose owned metadata lacks root_block or tables_block as strings — the exact config.toml snippets Caveman inserted between its '# >>> caveman:native-root' / '# >>> caveman:native-tables' markers. Without them the disable cannot excise its own additions from ~/.codex/config.toml, so it aborts. Cause: journal written by an older schema, truncated, or hand-edited.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/index.ts:7727

    let text = current.toString("utf8");
    const routeBlock = operation.owned?.route_block;
    const previousRouteLines = operation.owned?.previous_route_lines;
    if (typeof routeBlock !== "string" || !Array.isArray(previousRouteLines)) {
      throw new Error("Hermes integration journal lacks owned routing block");
    }
    if (!text.includes(routeBlock)) throw new Error("Hermes routing block changed after enable; refusing destructive disable");
    text = text.replace(routeBlock, previousRouteLines.filter((line): line is string => typeof line === "string").join("\n"));
    for (const key of ["plugin_block", "mcp_block"] as const) {
      const block = operation.owned?.[key];
      if (block === null || block === undefined) continue;
      if (typeof block !== "string" || !text.includes(block)) throw new Error(`Hermes ${key.replace("_block", "")} block changed after enable; refusing destructive disable`);
      text = text.replace(block, "");
    }
    return Buffer.from(text);
  }
  const rootBlock = operation.owned?.root_block;
  const tablesBlock = operation.owned?.tables_block;
  if (typeof rootBlock !== "string" || typeof tablesBlock !== "string") throw new Error("Codex integration journal lacks owned blocks");
  let text = current.toString("utf8");
  for (const [block, begin] of [[rootBlock, CODEX_NATIVE_ROOT_BEGIN], [tablesBlock, CODEX_NATIVE_TABLES_BEGIN]] as const) {
    if (text.includes(begin) && !text.includes(block)) throw new Error("Codex Caveman config block changed after enable; refusing destructive disable");
    text = text.replace(`${block}\n\n`, "").replace(`\n\n${block}\n`, "\n").replace(block, "");
  }
  return Buffer.from(text);
}

function writeNativeRestoration(file: string, bytes: Buffer | null): void {
  if (bytes) {
    atomicWriteFile(file, bytes);
    return;
  }
  try { unlinkSync(file); } catch (error) {
    if ((error as NodeJS.ErrnoException).code !== "ENOENT") throw error;
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2f49f0e1a3)

Solutions

1. Re-run `caveman enable codex` to write a schema-current journal over the live config, then `caveman disable codex`
2. Use the Caveman version that performed the enable to run the disable
3. Manual path: delete everything between (and including) the caveman marker comments in ~/.codex/config.toml, then remove the journal

Example fix

# before: journal lacks owned blocks
caveman disable codex
# >> Codex integration journal lacks owned blocks

# after: re-stamp then disable
caveman enable codex && caveman disable codex

import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
const home = process.env.CAVEMAN_HOME ?? `${process.env.HOME}/.caveman`;
const j = JSON.parse(readFileSync(`${home}/integrations/codex.json`, 'utf8'));
const bad = j.operations.filter((op) =>
  typeof op.owned?.root_block !== 'string' || typeof op.owned?.tables_block !== 'string');
if (bad.length) console.error('journal pre-dates current schema — `caveman enable codex` rewrites it');

const hasCodexOwnedBlocks = (op) =>
  typeof op.owned?.root_block === 'string' && typeof op.owned?.tables_block === 'string';

catch (err) { if (err.message.includes('journal lacks owned blocks')) { /* `caveman enable codex && caveman disable codex` */ } else throw err; }

When it happens

Trigger: `caveman disable codex` or `caveman doctor codex --fix` with a journal whose operations[].owned.root_block / tables_block are missing or non-string — typically after a Caveman version change or manual journal tampering.

Common situations: Downgrading Caveman across a journal schema change; a crashed enable; cleaning up ~/.caveman by hand and corrupting the JSON.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• Gemini integration journal lacks owned routing block
• Aider integration journal lacks owned blocks
• Hermes integration journal lacks owned routing block
• Codex Caveman config block changed after enable; refusing de
• cave_context_ir_invalid

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@2f49f0e1a3 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/903237a709d5f9c4. Report an issue: GitHub.