What causes "Invalid Hotkey" in babalae/better-genshin-impact?

Validate the hotkey string format before constructing Hotkey; reject unknown tokens early.

babalae/better-genshin-impact · warning · ArgumentException

Invalid Hotkey

Error message

Invalid Hotkey

What it means

Thrown by the Hotkey(string) constructor when parsing the hotkey string fails — Enum.Parse throws for an unrecognized key token, or the split/format is invalid. The catch-all swallows the original exception and rethrows a generic ArgumentException("Invalid Hotkey"), discarding which token actually failed.

Source

Thrown at Fischless.HotkeyCapture/Hotkey.cs:73

                    Control = true;
                }
                else if (keyStr.Equals("Shift", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
                {
                    Shift = true;
                }
                else if (keyStr.Equals("Alt", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
                {
                    Alt = true;
                }
                else
                {
                    Key = (Keys)Enum.Parse(typeof(Keys), keyStr);
                }
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Hotkey");
        }
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        string str = string.Empty;
        if (Key != Keys.None)
        {
            str = string.Format("{0}{1}{2}{3}{4}",
                Windows ? "Win + " : string.Empty,
                Control ? "Ctrl + " : string.Empty,
                Shift ? "Shift + " : string.Empty,
                Alt ? "Alt + " : string.Empty,
                Key);
        }
        return str;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to a7cb36712d)

Solutions

Validate the hotkey string format before constructing Hotkey; reject unknown tokens early.
Replace Enum.Parse with Enum.TryParse and report which token failed instead of a generic message.
Sanitize/normalize stored hotkey strings on config load (trim, collapse '+', reject empties).

Example fix

// before
Key = (Keys)Enum.Parse(typeof(Keys), keyStr);
// ... catch { throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Hotkey"); }

// after
if (!Enum.TryParse(typeof(Keys), keyStr, true, out var parsedKey))
    throw new ArgumentException($"Invalid key token: '{keyStr}'", nameof(keyStr));
Key = (Keys)parsedKey;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

foreach (var tok in hotkeyStr.Replace(" ", "").Split('+'))
{
    if (modifiers.Contains(tok, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) continue;
    if (!Enum.TryParse(typeof(Keys), tok, true, out _))
        return false; // invalid token, do not construct Hotkey
}
return true;

Type guard

static bool IsValidHotkeyString(string s)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s)) return false;
    foreach (var tok in s.Replace(" ", "").Split('+'))
    {
        if (tok is "Win" or "Ctrl" or "Shift" or "Alt") continue;
        if (!Enum.TryParse(typeof(Keys), tok, true, out _)) return false;
    }
    return true;
}

Try / catch

Hotkey? hk = null;
try { hk = new Hotkey(stored); }
catch (ArgumentException) { hk = new Hotkey(); /* reset to empty/default */ }

Prevention

Use Enum.TryParse instead of Enum.Parse to avoid the catch-all.
Validate hotkey strings before persisting them to config.
Preserve the offending token in the error message for easier diagnosis.

When it happens

Trigger: A persisted hotkey string contains a token that is not a valid System.Windows.Forms.Keys name: a typo, a localized key name, an unknown function key, or an empty token from a trailing '+' delimiter.

Common situations: Config file hand-edited with a bad key string; locale mismatch producing a non-English key name; a key name removed in a newer framework; an empty or modifier-only hotkey string saved to disk.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of babalae/better-genshin-impact@a7cb36712d (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3c68d517d976f651. Report an issue: GitHub.