affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

Invalid provenance metadata

Error message

Invalid provenance metadata: ${validation.errors.join('; ')}

What it means

assertValidProvenance runs a provenance record through validateProvenance and, if the record fails schema validation, throws with all validation errors joined by semicolons. It is the write/read path's integrity gate: provenance metadata must be complete and internally consistent before it is persisted or consumed.

Solutions

  1. Read the joined error list in the message and add/fix the named fields in the record.
  2. Before writing, run validateProvenance(record) in the caller and repair fields programmatically.
  3. Regenerate provenance for the skill with the library's own tooling instead of hand-editing the JSON.
  4. If an old file fails new validation, migrate it: read the record, backfill missing fields per the current schema, then write it back.

Example fix

// before
writeProvenance(dir, { name: 'my-skill' }); // missing version/source

// after
const record = { name: 'my-skill', version: '1.0.0', source: 'ECC', ...rest };
const v = validateProvenance(record);
if (v.valid) writeProvenance(dir, record);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const v = validateProvenance(record);
if (!v.valid) {
  console.error('Provenance issues:', v.errors.join('; '));
  return null; // fix before writing
}

Type guard

const isWellFormedProvenance = (r) => r !== null && typeof r === 'object' && typeof r.name === 'string' && r.name.length > 0;

Try / catch

try {
  writeProvenance(dir, record);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.startsWith('Invalid provenance metadata')) {
    console.error(err.message); // semicolon-joined field errors
    // repair record fields named in the message, then retry once
  } else throw err;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: writeProvenance(record) with a record missing required fields (e.g. no name/version/source) or wrong field types; readProvenance encountering an on-disk PROVENANCE/JSON file whose contents fail validateProvenance; hand-edited provenance files with missing keys; records produced by an older library version that no longer satisfy the current schema.

Common situations: Manually editing provenance JSON and dropping a required field; merging skill directories without updating provenance; upgrading the plugin where validation rules tightened; partial writes/corruption leaving truncated JSON that parses but fails validation.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@8321021c54 (2026-09-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a24f82141b9b5931. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at scripts/lib/skill-evolution/provenance.js:136

    errors.push('confidence must be a number');
  } else if (record.confidence < 0 || record.confidence > 1) {
    errors.push('confidence must be between 0 and 1');
  }

  if (typeof record.author !== 'string' || record.author.trim().length === 0) {
    errors.push('author is required');
  }

  return {
    valid: errors.length === 0,
    errors,
  };
}

function assertValidProvenance(record) {
  const validation = validateProvenance(record);
  if (!validation.valid) {
    throw new Error(`Invalid provenance metadata: ${validation.errors.join('; ')}`);
  }
}

function readProvenance(skillPath, options = {}) {
  const skillDir = normalizeSkillDir(skillPath);
  const provenancePath = getProvenancePath(skillDir);
  const provenanceRequired = options.required === true || requiresProvenance(skillDir, options);

  if (!fs.existsSync(provenancePath)) {
    if (provenanceRequired) {
      throw new Error(`Missing provenance metadata for ${skillDir}`);
    }

    return null;
  }

  const record = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(provenancePath, 'utf8'));
  assertValidProvenance(record);

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