alibaba/open-code-review · error

invalid effort %q: must be one of %s

Error message

invalid effort %q: must be one of %s

What it means

ParseEffort validates the user-supplied effort level against the known presets (case-insensitively, via strings.ToLower). If the value is not one of the EffortNames() list, this error is returned describing the allowed values. Effort selects the review depth preset.

Source

Thrown at internal/config/template/effort.go:44

	return []string{string(EffortLow), string(EffortMedium), string(EffortHigh)}
}

// EffortPreset is the concrete knob set an Effort level expands to.
type EffortPreset struct {
	MaxReviewRounds int
}

var effortPresets = map[Effort]EffortPreset{
	EffortLow:    {MaxReviewRounds: 1},
	EffortMedium: {MaxReviewRounds: 2},
	EffortHigh:   {MaxReviewRounds: 3},
}

// ParseEffort validates a user-supplied effort value.
func ParseEffort(s string) (Effort, error) {
	e := Effort(strings.ToLower(s))
	if _, ok := effortPresets[e]; !ok {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("invalid effort %q: must be one of %s", s, strings.Join(EffortNames(), ", "))
	}
	return e, nil
}

// Preset returns the knob set for e.
func (e Effort) Preset() EffortPreset {
	if p, ok := effortPresets[e]; ok {
		return p
	}
	return effortPresets[EffortDefault]
}

// ApplyEffort overwrites the effort-controlled template scalars.
func (t *Template) ApplyEffort(e Effort) {
	p := e.Preset()
	t.MaxReviewRounds = p.MaxReviewRounds
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5cf97d0d15)

Solutions

1. Use one of the exact accepted names printed in the error (strings.Join(EffortNames(), ", ")) — e.g. `ocr review --effort max`
2. Trim whitespace and check case is irrelevant (ToLower is applied, so case is fine but spaces are not)
3. Upgrade/downgrade awareness: check `ocr --help` for the effort values supported by your installed version
4. Grep internal/config/template/effort.go for effortPresets to see the authoritative list

Example fix

// before
ocr review --effort extreme
// after
ocr review --effort max

import "strings"
var validEfforts = map[string]bool{"low": true, "medium": true, "high": true} // match EffortNames()
func validEffort(s string) bool { return validEfforts[strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(s))] }

eff, err := template.ParseEffort(flagValue)
if err != nil {
    var inv *template.EffortError // or check message prefix "invalid effort"
    fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "usage: ocr review --effort <%s>\n", strings.Join(template.EffortNames(), "|"))
    os.Exit(2)
}

When it happens

Trigger: setConfigValue, resolveEffort, or validateReviewOptions receives an effort string such as "high", "extreme", "", or " maximum" (leading space) that is not in effortPresets.

Common situations: Typo in --effort flag (e.g. `higth`); an old effort name removed/renamed in a newer ocr version; a config file key set to a value copied from different tooling; whitespace around the value in YAML/JSON config.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• invalid max_tokens in app config: must be a positive integer
• invalid config: %w
• unsupported extension %q, only .md/.txt/.markdown allowed
• max_tokens must be positive
• max_tool_request_times must be positive

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/open-code-review@5cf97d0d15 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1464067b40fd38ae. Report an issue: GitHub.