agentscope-ai/agentscope · error · ValueError

The table_format must be one of 'markdown' or 'json', got {t

Error message

The table_format must be one of 'markdown' or 'json', got {table_format!r}.

What it means

WordParser.__init__ validates its table_format argument and only accepts 'markdown' or 'json'; any other string raises ValueError at construction time.

Source

Thrown at src/agentscope/rag/_parser/_word.py:228

                :class:`DataBlock` sections.  Set to ``False`` to keep
                a text-only index.
            separate_table (`bool`, defaults to ``False``):
                When ``True``, each table becomes its own text section,
                never merged with surrounding paragraphs.
            table_format (`Literal["markdown", "json"]`, defaults to
                ``"markdown"``):
                How to render tables.  ``"markdown"`` uses pipe-table
                syntax, escaping pipes and rendering cell line breaks
                as ``<br>``; ``"json"`` emits a JSON array prefixed with
                a ``<system-info>`` marker and preserves extracted cell
                strings without Markdown rendering.

        Raises:
            `ValueError`: If ``table_format`` is not one of
                ``"markdown"`` / ``"json"``.
        """
        if table_format not in ("markdown", "json"):
            raise ValueError(
                "The table_format must be one of 'markdown' or 'json', "
                f"got {table_format!r}.",
            )
        self.include_image = include_image
        self.separate_table = separate_table
        self.table_format = table_format

    async def parse(
        self,
        file: bytes | str,
        filename: str,
    ) -> list[Section]:
        """Parse a DOCX file into a list of :class:`Section` objects.

        Args:
            file (`bytes | str`):
                Either the raw DOCX bytes, or a filesystem path to the
                DOCX file.

View on GitHub (pinned to e90f1c7592)

Solutions

Use exactly 'markdown' or 'json'
Check spelling/case if building from config
Validate config values before parser construction

Example fix

# before
wp = WordParser(table_format='md')
# after
wp = WordParser(table_format='markdown')

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

assert table_format in ('markdown', 'json')

Type guard

def is_valid_table_format(v: str) -> bool:
    return v in ('markdown', 'json')

Prevention

Validate config values against the documented enum before constructing parsers
Use constants instead of free-form strings

When it happens

Trigger: WordParser(table_format='csv') or 'html', 'md', 'JSON' (case-sensitive), or passing a table_format intended for another parser.

Common situations: Copy-pasting config from a different library, typos, or assuming case-insensitivity; often caught when constructing parsers programmatically from a config dict.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of agentscope-ai/agentscope@e90f1c7592 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3380d0d1565c64d9. Report an issue: GitHub.