Textualize/textual · error · DecodeError

Missing bytes in {bytes_data!r}

Error message

Missing bytes in {bytes_data!r}

What it means

get_bytes() tries to read `size` bytes at the current decode position; if the remaining buffer is shorter than requested (commonly size 0 with a leading b'' in this version), it raises DecodeError. Like 'More data expected', it signals a truncated or malformed binary payload.

Source

Thrown at src/textual/_binary_encode.py:225

        """
        return encoded[position : position + 1]

    def get_bytes(size: int) -> bytes:
        """Get a number of bytes of encode data.

        Args:
            size: Number of bytes to retrieve.

        Raises:
            DecodeError: If there aren't enough bytes.

        Returns:
            A bytes object.
        """
        nonlocal position
        bytes_data = encoded[position : position + size]
        if len(bytes_data) != size:
            raise DecodeError(b"Missing bytes in {bytes_data!r}")
        position += size
        return bytes_data

    def decode_int() -> int:
        """Decode an int from the encoded data.

        Returns:
            An integer.
        """
        int_bytes = b""
        while (byte := get_byte()) != b"e":
            int_bytes += byte
        return int(int_bytes)

    def decode_bytes(size_bytes: bytes) -> bytes:
        """Decode a bytes string from the encoded data.

        Returns:

View on GitHub (pinned to 06dbeef4bb)

Solutions

1. Validate the payload is complete and unmodified before calling load()
2. Fix the transport to deliver whole frames (read exactly the framed length)
3. Regenerate the encoded data from the source instead of repairing truncated bytes
4. Check for off-by-one slicing if you pre-process the buffer

from textual._binary_encode import DecodeError
try:
    value = load(payload)
except DecodeError:
    payload = regenerate()  # re-encode from source and retry once

When it happens

Trigger: Decoding a length-prefixed string/bytes section where the declared length exceeds the remaining bytes; truncated payload from a socket read; corrupt or misaligned byte stream (e.g. off-by-one after manual buffer manipulation).

Common situations: Network partial reads, corrupted cache files, or feeding arbitrary/modified bytes to load() — often seen alongside 'More data expected' for the same underlying truncation.

Related errors

• More data expected
• Can't encode {datum!r}
• must be bytes
• Can't animate attribute {attribute!r} on {obj!r}; attribute
• Don't know how to animate {value!r}; Can only animate <int>,

AI-assisted analysis of Textualize/textual@06dbeef4bb (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7a7dc56ee6b74328. Report an issue: GitHub.