assafelovic/gpt-researcher · error · ValueError

Cannot convert {env_value} to list

Error message

Cannot convert {env_value} to list

What it means

For list-typed config attributes, convert_env_value parses the env string with json_repair; if parsing raises (first site) this error is raised chained from the parse exception.

Source

Thrown at gpt_researcher/config/config.py:293

                except ValueError:
                    continue
            raise ValueError(f"Cannot convert {env_value} to any of {args}")

        if type_hint is bool:
            return env_value.lower() in ("true", "1", "yes", "on")
        elif type_hint is int:
            return int(env_value)
        elif type_hint is float:
            return float(env_value)
        elif type_hint in (str, Any):
            return env_value
        elif type_hint is list or origin is list or origin is List:
            # Env values are often hand-edited (trailing commas, single quotes).
            # Bare `list` has get_origin(None); typing.List[...] has origin list.
            try:
                value = json_repair.loads(env_value)
            except Exception as exc:
                raise ValueError(f"Cannot convert {env_value} to list") from exc
            if not isinstance(value, list):
                raise ValueError(f"Cannot convert {env_value} to list")
            return value
        elif type_hint is dict:
            try:
                value = json_repair.loads(env_value)
            except Exception as exc:
                raise ValueError(f"Cannot convert {env_value} to dict") from exc
            if not isinstance(value, dict):
                raise ValueError(f"Cannot convert {env_value} to dict")
            return value
        else:
            raise ValueError(f"Unsupported type {type_hint} for key {key}")


    def set_verbose(self, verbose: bool) -> None:
        """Set the verbosity level."""
        self.llm_kwargs["verbose"] = verbose

View on GitHub (pinned to 6f998577d5)

Solutions

1. Provide a JSON array: MYLIST='["a","b"]'
2. If you meant a path/string setting, move the value to the correct scalar variable

Example fix

# before
SUBQUERIES=one two three
# after
SUBQUERIES=["one","two","three"]

import json
v = os.getenv("MY_LIST", "[]")
try:
    assert isinstance(json.loads(v), list)
except Exception:
    raise SystemExit(f"MY_LIST must be a JSON array, got {v!r}")

def is_json_list(s: str) -> bool:
    try:
        return isinstance(json_repair.loads(s), list)
    except Exception:
        return False

try:
    cfg = Config()
except ValueError as e:
    if "to list" in str(e):
        os.environ["MY_LIST"] = "[]"; cfg = Config()
    else: raise

When it happens

Trigger: A list-typed env var containing text json_repair cannot recover, e.g. DOC_PATH='just some words' where a JSON array was expected.

Common situations: Free-form text in a list env var; mismatched brackets; wrong var name putting a scalar value on a list field.

Related errors

• Cannot convert {env_value} to dict
• Cannot convert {env_value} to any of {args}
• Embedding provider not found.
• Invalid retriever(s) found: {', '.join(invalid_retrievers)}.
• Set SMART_LLM or FAST_LLM = '<llm_provider>:<llm_model>' Eg

AI-assisted analysis of assafelovic/gpt-researcher@6f998577d5 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/336d19af71621f35. Report an issue: GitHub.