TauricResearch/TradingAgents · error · ValueError

expected a boolean ({'/'.join(_BOOL_TRUE + _BOOL_FALSE)}), g

Error message

expected a boolean ({'/'.join(_BOOL_TRUE + _BOOL_FALSE)}), got {value!r}

What it means

ValueError raised by _coerce in tradingagents/default_config.py when a TRADINGAGENTS_* env var mapped to a boolean config key holds a string that is not in the accepted true/false sets. Invalid values fail loudly at startup instead of silently falling back — a misspelled 'treu' would otherwise misconfigure an unattended run.

Source

Thrown at tradingagents/default_config.py:48

_BOOL_TRUE = ("true", "1", "yes", "on")
_BOOL_FALSE = ("false", "0", "no", "off")


def _coerce(value: str, reference):
    """Coerce env-var string to the type of the existing default value.

    Invalid values raise ``ValueError`` rather than silently falling back to a
    default — a misspelled boolean (e.g. ``treu``) or non-numeric int should fail
    loudly at startup, not quietly misconfigure an unattended run.
    """
    if isinstance(reference, bool):
        normalized = value.strip().lower()
        if normalized in _BOOL_TRUE:
            return True
        if normalized in _BOOL_FALSE:
            return False
        raise ValueError(
            f"expected a boolean ({'/'.join(_BOOL_TRUE + _BOOL_FALSE)}), got {value!r}"
        )
    if isinstance(reference, int) and not isinstance(reference, bool):
        return int(value)
    if isinstance(reference, float):
        return float(value)
    return value


def _apply_env_overrides(config: dict) -> dict:
    """Apply TRADINGAGENTS_* env vars to the config dict in-place."""
    for env_var, key in _ENV_OVERRIDES.items():
        raw = os.environ.get(env_var)
        if raw is None or raw == "":
            continue
        try:
            config[key] = _coerce(raw, config.get(key))
        except ValueError as exc:

View on GitHub (pinned to a33fd4c0f1)

Solutions

1. Check the error's accepted token list (the _BOOL_TRUE/_BOOL_FALSE values shown in the message) and use one of those spellings.
2. Audit your .env / CI secrets for the offending TRADINGAGENTS_* variable and fix the value.
3. Standardize on lowercase 'true'/'false' for every boolean env var in your deployment.

Example fix

# before
export TRADINGAGENTS_DEBUG=treu

# after
export TRADINGAGENTS_DEBUG=true

_BOOL_TRUE = {'true', '1', 'yes', 'on'}
_BOOL_FALSE = {'false', '0', 'no', 'off'}

def is_valid_bool_env(raw: str | None) -> bool:
    return raw is None or raw == '' or raw.strip().lower() in _BOOL_TRUE | _BOOL_FALSE

assert is_valid_bool_env('true') and not is_valid_bool_env('treu')

try:
    import tradingagents.default_config
except ValueError as e:
    print(f'config error at import: {e}')  # name the bad TRADINGAGENTS_* var and exit fast
    raise SystemExit(2)

When it happens

Trigger: Setting a boolean env var (e.g. TRADINGAGENTS_BACKEND_URL-check style boolean keys) to a non-recognized spelling such as 'treu', 'yes', '1', or 'enabled' — anything not in the _BOOL_TRUE/_BOOL_FALSE token sets. _coerce is called from _apply_env_overrides during module import.

Common situations: Typos in .env files or CI environment variables; using 'yes'/'no' or '1'/'0' when the library expects 'true'/'false'; shell-exported debug flags with wrong casing or trailing characters.

Related errors

• Invalid value for {env_var}: {exc}
• llm_max_retries must be an integer, not a boolean: {value!r}
• llm_max_retries must be an integer, got {value!r}
• llm_max_retries must be >= 0, got {n}
• unknown analyst key: {analyst_key}

AI-assisted analysis of TauricResearch/TradingAgents@a33fd4c0f1 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ab4f8305c46bdebc. Report an issue: GitHub.