JuliusBrussee/caveman · error

recordOutcome: values must be a non-empty plain object

Error message

recordOutcome: values must be a non-empty plain object

What it means

recordOutcome sends outcome values plus evidence references to the Caveman control API, and it validates input client-side before the request. values must be a plain object (not an array, null, class instance, or primitive) with at least one key; an empty object would produce an outcome with no measurements, which the API rejects, so the SDK fails fast with this message.

Source

Thrown at packages/mastra/src/index.ts:650

 *
 * Fails closed BEFORE any network call on a missing task id, a missing contract,
 * empty values, an evidence map that is empty or over the server's limit, a
 * confidence outside [0,1], or values that are not plain JSON. Exactly one
 * request is made — no retries — and a non-2xx response throws a
 * {@link CavemanOutcomeError} carrying the status and body verbatim.
 */
export async function recordOutcome(
  client: CavemanOutcomeClient,
  input: RecordOutcomeInput,
): Promise<RecordOutcomeResult> {
  const controlApiUrl = requireBaseUrl(client.controlApiUrl, "recordOutcome: controlApiUrl");
  const token = requireNonEmpty(client.token, "recordOutcome: token");
  const projectId = requireNonEmpty(client.projectId, "recordOutcome: projectId");
  const taskId = requireNonEmpty(input.taskId, "recordOutcome: taskId");
  const contract = requireNonEmpty(input.contract, "recordOutcome: contract");

  if (!isPlainObject(input.values) || Object.keys(input.values).length === 0) {
    throw new Error("recordOutcome: values must be a non-empty plain object");
  }
  if (!isPlainObject(input.evidence)) {
    throw new Error("recordOutcome: evidence must be a plain object");
  }
  const evidenceRefs = Object.entries(input.evidence).map(([key, value]) => {
    if (!key.trim()) throw new Error("recordOutcome: evidence keys must be non-empty");
    if (typeof value !== "string" && typeof value !== "number" && typeof value !== "boolean") {
      throw new Error(`recordOutcome: evidence.${key} must be a string, number, or boolean`);
    }
    if (typeof value === "number" && !Number.isFinite(value)) {
      throw new Error(`recordOutcome: evidence.${key} must be a finite number`);
    }
    const ref = `${key}:${String(value)}`;
    if (!ref.slice(key.length + 1)) throw new Error(`recordOutcome: evidence.${key} must be non-empty`);
    return ref;
  });
  if (evidenceRefs.length === 0) {
    throw new Error("recordOutcome: evidence must contain at least one reference");

View on GitHub (pinned to 27d5a3981a)

Solutions

1. Ensure values contains at least one scalar measurement, e.g. { correctness: 1 }.
2. Skip the recordOutcome call entirely when there is nothing to report rather than sending an empty object.
3. Use a plain object literal (not a class instance or array) for values.

Example fix

// before
await recordOutcome(client, { taskId, contract, values: {} });
// after
if (Object.keys(values).length > 0) {
  await recordOutcome(client, { taskId, contract, values });
}

function isPlainObject(v: unknown): v is Record<string, unknown> {
  return typeof v === "object" && v !== null && !Array.isArray(v)
    && Object.getPrototypeOf(v) === Object.prototype;
}

function validValues(v: unknown): boolean {
  return isPlainObject(v) && Object.keys(v).length > 0;
}

function isPlainObject(v: unknown): v is Record<string, unknown> {
  return typeof v === "object" && v !== null && !Array.isArray(v)
    && Object.getPrototypeOf(v) === Object.prototype;
}

try {
  await recordOutcome(client, input);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.startsWith("recordOutcome: values")) {
    logger.warn("skipping outcome with no values", { taskId: input.taskId });
    return; // empty values are not worth a retry
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: recordOutcome(client, { taskId, contract, values: {} }) or values: [] / values: null / values built from Object.create(null)-adjacent or class instances that fail isPlainObject.

Common situations: Dynamically building values from a loop that produced no entries, spreading an optional config that is undefined, or passing a Map/array because the payload schema was misread.

Related errors

• recordOutcome: evidence must be a plain object
• recordOutcome: evidence keys must be non-empty
• option not found
• cave_harness_adapter_version_invalid
• cavemanExporterConfig: protocol ${protocol} is not accepted

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@27d5a3981a (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b11134bfc3f2a395. Report an issue: GitHub.