OpenBB-finance/OpenBB · error · ValueError

'{item}' is not available. Did you mean '{similar}'?

Error message

'{item}' is not available. Did you mean '{similar}'?

What it means

Raised by openbb_core.provider.utils.helpers.check_item(item, allowed, threshold=0.75). It validates that a string is a member of an allowed list; on failure it computes difflib SequenceMatcher similarity against every allowed value and, if the best score exceeds the threshold, suggests the closest match ('Did you mean ...?'), otherwise raises the plain '{item} is not available.' variant. It is used to validate enum-like query parameters (e.g. provider names, sort/period values) before a fetch.

Source

Thrown at openbb_platform/core/openbb_core/provider/utils/helpers.py:58

    item : str
        The item to check.
    allowed : list[str]
        The list of allowed items.
    threshold : float, optional
        The similarity threshold for the error message, by default 0.75

    Raises
    ------
    ValueError
        If the item is not in the allowed list.
    """
    if item not in allowed:
        similarities = map(
            lambda c: (c, SequenceMatcher(None, item, c).ratio()), allowed
        )
        similar, score = max(similarities, key=lambda x: x[1])
        if score > threshold:
            raise ValueError(f"'{item}' is not available. Did you mean '{similar}'?")
        raise ValueError(f"'{item}' is not available.")


def get_querystring(items: dict, exclude: list[str]) -> str:
    """Turn a dictionary into a querystring, excluding the keys in the exclude list.

    Parameters
    ----------
    items: dict
        The dictionary to be turned into a querystring.

    exclude: list[str]
        The keys to be excluded from the querystring.

    Returns
    -------
    str
        The querystring.

View on GitHub (pinned to 3e071fcc2c)

Solutions

1. Read the suggestion in the message: if it says "Did you mean 'X'?", use X
2. List the accepted values from the endpoint's OpenAPI schema (GET /api/v1/docs or obb.<router>.<endpoint> docstring) and use one verbatim
3. For providers: check obb.user.provider_settings or the installed provider packages (pip list | grep openbb) before naming one

Example fix

# before
res = await obb.equity.price.historical(symbol="AAPL", provider="yahoofinance")
# ValueError: 'yahoofinance' is not available. Did you mean 'yfinance'?

# after
res = await obb.equity.price.historical(symbol="AAPL", provider="yfinance")

from difflib import SequenceMatcher

def check_allowed(item: str, allowed: list[str], threshold: float = 0.75) -> str:
    if item in allowed:
        return item
    best = max(allowed, key=lambda c: SequenceMatcher(None, item, c).ratio())
    if SequenceMatcher(None, item, best).ratio() > threshold:
        return best  # accept the suggestion programmatically
    raise ValueError(f"'{item}' has no close match in {allowed}")

provider = check_allowed(provider_name, ["yfinance", "tradier", "cboe"])

def is_allowed_item(item: str, allowed: list[str]) -> bool:
    return item in allowed

try:
    res = await obb.equity.price.historical(symbol=sym, provider=provider)
except ValueError as e:
    if "is not available" in str(e):
        raise ValueError(f"bad enum value: {e}; allowed={allowed_list}") from e
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling a REST/Python endpoint with a misspelled or unsupported enum value, e.g. provider='yahoofinace' (typo -> 'Did you mean yfinance?'), sort='maket_cap', or a value valid for one endpoint but not the one being called.

Common situations: Typos in parameter values, values from an outdated API reference (a sort option renamed between versions), or passing a provider that is not installed.

Related errors

• Incorrect email or password
• Invalid format for URLs. Must be str, dict, or list.
• Invalid parse_as value. Must be one of 'table', 'chart', or
• vx_type must be one of: 'am', 'eod'
• Invalid amendment_type: {values.amendment_type}. Must be one

AI-assisted analysis of OpenBB-finance/OpenBB@3e071fcc2c (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1d0abcc5336c288e. Report an issue: GitHub.