JuliusBrussee/caveman · error · Error

Kilo data root resolves to an empty path

Error message

Kilo data root resolves to an empty path

What it means

Sanity check when resolving Kilo's data root: the computed directory path is empty, analogous to the config-root guard. Environment variables steering Kilo's data location are set to values that resolve to an empty string, so subsequent path joins would be meaningless.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/index.ts:11660

  // but managed loading deliberately excludes it.
  const configFiles = ["kilo.jsonc", "kilo.json", "opencode.jsonc", "opencode.json"];
  if (configFiles.some((name) => existsSync(join(directory, name)))) return true;
  if (process.platform !== "darwin") return false;
  const preferenceFiles = ["/Library/Managed Preferences/ai.opencode.managed.plist"];
  try {
    preferenceFiles.unshift(join("/Library/Managed Preferences", userInfo().username, "ai.opencode.managed.plist"));
  } catch {
    // System-level preference remains covered; an unreadable username is itself
    // unusual, but no user path can be resolved safely enough to claim absence.
    return true;
  }
  return preferenceFiles.some((path) => existsSync(path));
}

function kiloDatabasePath(): string | null {
  const rawDataRoot = process.env.XDG_DATA_HOME || join(homedir(), ".local", "share");
  const cleanedDataRoot = rawDataRoot.replace(/[\r\n]+/g, "");
  if (!cleanedDataRoot) throw new Error("Kilo data root resolves to an empty path");
  const dataRoot = normalize(isAbsolute(cleanedDataRoot) ? cleanedDataRoot : resolve(cleanedDataRoot));
  const configured = process.env.KILO_DB;
  if (configured === ":memory:") return null;
  if (configured) {
    if (/[\0\r\n]/.test(configured)) throw new Error("KILO_DB contains an invalid path character");
    return normalize(isAbsolute(configured) ? configured : join(dataRoot, "kilo", configured));
  }
  return join(dataRoot, "kilo", "kilo.db");
}

function kiloActiveOrganizationState(): "none" | "active" | "unknown" {
  let path: string | null;
  try {
    path = kiloDatabasePath();
    if (path === null) return "none";
    const stat = statSync(path);
    if (!stat.isFile()) return "unknown";
  } catch (error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 5184b3d11a)

Solutions

1. Set the Kilo data-root environment variable to a non-empty absolute path
2. Unset the variable so the default data location is used
3. Fix shell scripts that export it with an unset or blank value

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/cli/src/index.ts:11660 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@5184b3d11a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bfff57b33a4ddd8f. Report an issue: GitHub.