Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm · error

Filename is required!

Error message

Filename is required!

What it means

Thrown by `writeToServerDocuments` when `filename` is falsy. This function writes parsed document JSON to the server's documents directory, so a missing filename means it cannot construct a destination file path — it fails fast rather than writing to an arbitrary or empty name. The check is a required-argument guard, not a runtime/environment condition.

Source

Thrown at collector/utils/files/index.js:126

}

/**
 * Writes a document to the server documents folder.
 * @param {Object} params - The parameters for the function.
 * @param {Object} params.data - The data to write to the file. Must look like a document object.
 * @param {string} params.filename - The name of the file to write to.
 * @param {string|null} params.destinationOverride - A forced destination to write to - will be honored if provided.
 * @param {Object} params.options - The options for the function.
 * @param {boolean} params.options.parseOnly - If true, the file will be written to the direct uploads folder instead of the documents folder. Will be ignored if destinationOverride is provided.
 * @returns {Object} - The data with the location added.
 */
function writeToServerDocuments({
  data = {},
  filename,
  destinationOverride = null,
  options = {},
}) {
  if (!filename) throw new Error("Filename is required!");

  let destination = null;
  if (destinationOverride) destination = path.resolve(destinationOverride);
  else if (options.parseOnly) destination = path.resolve(directUploadsFolder);
  else destination = path.resolve(documentsFolder, "custom-documents");

  if (!fs.existsSync(destination))
    fs.mkdirSync(destination, { recursive: true });
  const safeFilename = sanitizeFileName(filename);
  const destinationFilePath = normalizePath(
    path.resolve(destination, safeFilename) + ".json"
  );

  fs.writeFileSync(destinationFilePath, JSON.stringify(data, null, 4), {
    encoding: "utf-8",
  });

  return {

View on GitHub (pinned to 526360e320)

Solutions

1. Ensure every caller computes a non-empty filename (use the source file name, a UUID, or a slugified title).
2. Add a fallback such as `filename = filename || document-${Date.now()}` before the call.
3. Validate the filename upstream with a type check and reject ingestion jobs missing it.
4. Unit-test parsers to assert they always emit a filename.

Example fix

// before
await writeToServerDocuments({ data, filename: record.title });

// after
const filename = record.title || record.name || `doc-${path.basename(sourcePath) || uuidv4()}`;
if (!filename) throw new Error('Cannot determine filename for document');
await writeToServerDocuments({ data, filename });

function withFilename(data, candidate) {
  const filename = candidate || data.title || data.name || `doc-${Date.now()}`;
  if (!filename) throw new Error('Cannot determine filename for document');
  return { data, filename };
}

function hasNonEmptyFilename(arg) {
  return typeof arg?.filename === 'string' && arg.filename.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  await writeToServerDocuments({ data, filename });
} catch (e) {
  if (/Filename is required/i.test(e.message)) {
    filename = `doc-${Date.now()}`;
    await writeToServerDocuments({ data, filename });
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `writeToServerDocuments({ data })` with no filename; passing `filename: null`/`''`/`undefined`; a parser that produces documents without setting a name field; destructuring a record whose `title`/`name` key is absent and feeding it as filename.

Common situations: A new connector/parser forgets to set the filename; a PDF/URL ingest where the source has no extractable title; refactoring renames the field but misses this call site.

Related errors

• Invalid path.
• Input file ${inputPath} does not exist.
• Invalid video id!
• Impossible to retrieve Youtube video ID.
• Invalid path name

AI-assisted analysis of Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm@526360e320 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fb90d934d6b9509a. Report an issue: GitHub.