astrid-runtime/astrid · error

sandbox {label} must be an absolute path, got: {}

Error message

sandbox {label} must be an absolute path, got: {}

What it means

validate_sandbox_str checks paths interpolated into sandbox profiles (SBPL/bwrap). A relative path cannot be safely or meaningfully expressed in the profile, so the function rejects it with InvalidInput naming the label (e.g. 'process read path') and the offending path.

Source

Thrown at crates/astrid-workspace/src/sandbox/mod.rs:17

use std::ffi::OsString;
use std::io;
use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
use std::process::Command;

#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
mod bwrap;
#[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
mod seatbelt;

/// Validate a path for safe interpolation into sandbox profiles (SBPL/bwrap).
///
/// Rejects relative paths, non-UTF-8, double-quote, backslash, and null byte -
/// all of which can break or bypass sandbox profile syntax.
fn validate_sandbox_str<'a>(path: &'a Path, label: &str) -> io::Result<&'a str> {
    if !path.is_absolute() {
        return Err(io::Error::new(
            io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput,
            format!(
                "sandbox {label} must be an absolute path, got: {}",
                path.display()
            ),
        ));
    }
    let s = path.to_str().ok_or_else(|| {
        io::Error::new(
            io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput,
            format!("sandbox {label} is not valid UTF-8: {}", path.display()),
        )
    })?;
    if s.contains(['"', '\\', '\0']) {
        return Err(io::Error::new(
            io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput,
            format!(
                "sandbox {label} contains forbidden characters (double-quote, backslash, or null): {}",

View on GitHub (pinned to affd8760f4)

Solutions

1. Convert the path to absolute with std::fs::canonicalize (or path.absolutize) before calling the sandbox API
2. Use fs::canonicalize to also resolve symlinks, then pass the canonical path
3. If the path may not exist yet, anchor it explicitly: PathBuf::from("/").join(relative) or join against a known root
4. Fix configuration files or env vars to store absolute paths

Example fix

// before
wrap_with_process_paths(&ws, &[PathBuf::from("./logs")], &[])?;
// after
let abs = std::fs::canonicalize("./logs")?;
wrap_with_process_paths(&ws, &[abs], &[])?;

fn ensure_absolute(p: &Path) -> io::Result<()> { if !p.is_absolute() { Err(io::Error::new(io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput, format!("path must be absolute: {}", p.display()))) } else { Ok(()) } }

fn is_abs(p: &Path) -> bool { p.is_absolute() }

match wrap_with_process_paths(&ws, &paths, &[]) { Err(e) if e.kind() == io::ErrorKind::InvalidInput && e.to_string().contains("must be an absolute path") => { /* canonicalize and retry or report to user */ }, other => other, }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling wrap_with_process_paths with relative extra_read_paths/extra_write_paths/injection paths, validate_all_paths with relative workspace paths, or build_seatbelt_prefix with a relative path.

Common situations: Users passing CLI-relative paths like './data' or bare 'data' instead of absolute ones; config files with relative paths resolved against the wrong CWD; env vars holding relative paths.

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

• sandbox {label} is not valid UTF-8: {}
• sandbox {label} contains forbidden characters (double-quote,
• process read path does not exist: {}
• process write path does not exist: {}
• capsule source is neither a directory nor a regular file: {}

AI-assisted analysis of astrid-runtime/astrid@affd8760f4 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/80784c65950318e5. Report an issue: GitHub.