What causes "invalid %s for %s: %q contains whitespace" in alibaba/open-code-review?

Correct the value to a whitespace-free identifier, e.g. us-east-1

invalid %s for %s: %q contains whitespace

Error message

invalid %s for %s: %q contains whitespace

What it means

normalizeAWSSetting validates values for aws_region/aws_profile. After trimming, an empty value is allowed (clears the field), but any remaining whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines) inside the value is rejected, since AWS region names and profile names can never contain whitespace. The error names the field, provider key, and the offending raw value.

Source

Thrown at cmd/opencodereview/config_cmd.go:719

func providerAcceptsAWSSettings(providerName string, entry *ProviderEntry) bool {
	if entry.Protocol != "" {
		return llm.NormalizeProtocol(entry.Protocol) == llm.ProtocolAnthropicBedrock
	}
	preset, isPreset := llm.LookupProvider(providerName)
	return isPreset && preset.AmbientAuth
}

// normalizeAWSSetting trims the value and rejects the shapes AWS itself will
// not accept. Region names are deliberately not checked against a fixed list:
// AWS adds regions faster than any embedded list stays correct, and a wrong one
// already surfaces at request time.
func normalizeAWSSetting(field, key, value string) (string, error) {
	trimmed := strings.TrimSpace(value)
	if trimmed == "" {
		return "", nil // clearing the field hands the decision back to the AWS chain
	}
	if strings.ContainsAny(trimmed, " \t\n") {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("invalid %s for %s: %q contains whitespace", field, key, value)
	}
	return trimmed, nil
}

func parseModelListValue(value string) ([]string, error) {
	value = strings.TrimSpace(value)
	if value == "" {
		return nil, nil
	}

	if strings.HasPrefix(value, "[") {
		var models []string
		if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(value), &models); err == nil {
			return normalizeModelList(models), nil
		}
		value = strings.TrimSpace(strings.TrimSuffix(strings.TrimPrefix(value, "["), "]"))
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5cf97d0d15)

Solutions

Correct the value to a whitespace-free identifier, e.g. us-east-1
Quote the argument in the shell to avoid word-splitting
Pass an empty value ('') to clear the field and defer to the AWS credential chain

Example fix

// before
ocr config set providers.foo.aws_region "us east 1"
// after
ocr config set providers.foo.aws_region "us-east-1"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

v="us-east-1"
[[ "$v" =~ [[:space:]] ]] && echo "contains whitespace" || ocr config set providers.foo.aws_region "$v"

Try / catch

trimmed := strings.TrimSpace(value)
if strings.ContainsAny(trimmed, " \t\n") {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid %s for %s: %q contains whitespace", field, key, value)
}

Prevention

AWS regions/profiles are whitespace-free identifiers
Quote values to prevent shell word-splitting
Pass an empty value to clear the field rather than a space

When it happens

Trigger: `ocr config set providers.<name>.aws_region "us east 1"` or a value with a trailing unquoted space plus interior whitespace, e.g. "us-east-1 " won't trigger (trimmed), but "us east-1" or a newline-pasted value will.

Common situations: Pasting a multi-line value from a terminal; typing 'us east 1' instead of 'us-east-1'; shell word-splitting injecting spaces into the value.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/open-code-review@5cf97d0d15 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b629b30ffcf1f585. Report an issue: GitHub.