babysor/MockingBird · error · ValueError

No valid cues parsed from SRT.

Error message

No valid cues parsed from SRT.

What it means

ValueError raised by parse_srt when no cue with non-empty text was successfully extracted from the file. Even if the file had blocks, all were skipped because their text lines were empty, so there is nothing to render.

Source

Thrown at skills/speak/scripts/render_timeline.py:87

    cues: List[Cue] = []
    for block in blocks:
        lines = [ln.rstrip() for ln in block.splitlines() if ln.strip()]
        if len(lines) < 3:
            continue
        try:
            idx = int(lines[0])
        except ValueError:
            continue
        if "-->" not in lines[1]:
            continue
        start_raw, end_raw = [s.strip() for s in lines[1].split("-->", 1)]
        start_ms = parse_timestamp_ms(start_raw)
        end_ms = parse_timestamp_ms(end_raw)
        text = "\n".join(lines[2:]).strip()
        if text:
            cues.append(Cue(index=idx, start_ms=start_ms, end_ms=end_ms, text=text))
    if not cues:
        raise ValueError("No valid cues parsed from SRT.")
    return cues


# ── Voice map resolution ─────────────────────────────────────────────


def parse_segment_key(key: str) -> Tuple[int, int]:
    key = key.strip()
    if "-" in key:
        left, right = key.split("-", 1)
        return int(left), int(right)
    v = int(key)
    return v, v


def resolve_segment_cfg(index: int, config: Dict[str, Any]) -> Dict[str, Any]:
    merged = dict(config.get("default", {}))
    for key, seg_cfg in config.get("segments", {}).items():

View on GitHub (pinned to 28dc5e14f1)

Solutions

1. Inspect the SRT structure: numbered index, timestamp line, text line, blank separator per block
2. Verify the file is the intended subtitle and non-trivial
3. Regenerate the SRT from its source (transcription/translation tool)

content = Path(srt).read_text(encoding='utf-8', errors='replace')
assert content.count('-->') > 0, 'no cue ranges found in SRT'

try:
    cues = parse_srt(path)
except ValueError:
    sys.exit(f'{path} has no usable cues; check formatting')

When it happens

Trigger: An SRT containing only blank text lines per cue, a file whose block regex never matched (wrong formatting/blank-line separators), or an effectively empty file that still read successfully.

Common situations: Placeholder SRT generated by a failed upstream transcription step, CRLF/blank-line issues preventing block detection, or pointing --srt at the wrong file.

Related errors

• Invalid SRT timestamp: {value}

AI-assisted analysis of babysor/MockingBird@28dc5e14f1 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d1159c6bba915a7f. Report an issue: GitHub.