What causes "load config: %w" in alibaba/open-code-review?

Validate the JSON: `python3 -m json.tool ~/.opencodereview/config.json` — fix any syntax errors it reports.

load config: %w

Error message

load config: %w

What it means

runConfigSet wraps failures from loadOrCreateConfig with "load config: %w". loadOrCreateConfig only fails when the config file exists but cannot be read (permissions) or parsed as JSON ("parse config: ..."). A missing file is not an error — it creates a fresh config — so this always points at a corrupt or inaccessible existing ~/.opencodereview/config.json.

Source

Thrown at cmd/opencodereview/config_cmd.go:118

// resolveConfigPath returns OCR_CONFIG_PATH when set, otherwise the default user config path.
// Intentionally used only by read-only commands (e.g. ocr llm test). Write paths such as
// config set and review keep defaultConfigPath() so a leaked OCR_CONFIG_PATH cannot redirect writes.
func resolveConfigPath() (string, error) {
	if p := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("OCR_CONFIG_PATH")); p != "" {
		return p, nil
	}
	return defaultConfigPath()
}

func runConfigSet(key, value string) error {
	configPath, err := defaultConfigPath()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	cfg, err := loadOrCreateConfig(configPath)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("load config: %w", err)
	}

	if err := setConfigValue(cfg, key, value); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if err := saveConfig(configPath, cfg); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	displayValue := value
	if shouldMaskConfigValue(key) {
		displayValue = maskKey(value)
	}
	fmt.Printf("Set %s = %s\n", key, displayValue)
	if warning := legacyLLMShadowWarning(cfg.Provider, key); warning != "" {
		fmt.Fprint(os.Stderr, warning)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5cf97d0d15)

Solutions

Validate the JSON: `python3 -m json.tool ~/.opencodereview/config.json` — fix any syntax errors it reports.
Check permissions: `ls -l ~/.opencodereview/config.json`; ensure the current user can read it.
If corrupt, back it up and remove or recreate it: `mv ~/.opencodereview/config.json ~/.opencodereview/config.json.bak`, then rerun the set command.
Inspect the wrapped cause in the error message ("parse config: ..." vs permission denied) to pick the right fix.

Example fix

// before (~/.opencodereview/config.json)
{ "provider": "anthropic", }   // trailing comma
// after
{ "provider": "anthropic" }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// shell: validate config JSON before running ocr config set
f="$HOME/.opencodereview/config.json"
[ -f "$f" ] && python3 -m json.tool "$f" > /dev/null || { echo "config.json missing or invalid"; exit 1; }

Try / catch

out, err := exec.Command("ocr", "config", "set", key, val).CombinedOutput()
if err != nil && strings.Contains(string(out), "load config:") {
	os.Rename(cfgPath, cfgPath+".corrupt") // quarantine and retry with a fresh config
}

Prevention

Always validate config.json with a JSON linter after hand edits.
Never put comments or trailing commas in config.json (strict JSON only).
Let ocr's own `config set` commands modify the file instead of editing by hand.
Watch the wrapped cause: 'parse config' means syntax, 'permission denied' means file access.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `ocr config set <key> <value>` when ~/.opencodereview/config.json exists but is unreadable (wrong owner/permissions) or contains invalid JSON (truncated write, hand-edit mistake, JSON5/comments, trailing commas).

Common situations: Hand-editing config.json and leaving a syntax error; a previous ocr process crashed mid-write; the file was created by another tool or version with a different schema; permissions changed by a chmod/chown script; NFS/home-sync conflicts producing partial files.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/open-code-review@5cf97d0d15 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/223ffb6540a79ca9. Report an issue: GitHub.