coleam00/Archon · error · Error

Invalid container.memoryMb '${String(memoryMb)}' — must be a

Error message

Invalid container.memoryMb '${String(memoryMb)}' — must be a positive integer (MiB).

What it means

resolveContainerBackendConfig() requires container.memoryMb from .archon/config.yaml to be a positive integer when present. `docker run --memory` rejects fractional or non-positive values, so the CLI validates strictly (Number.isInteger and > 0) and fails fast with this error instead of surfacing a runtime docker error.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/commands/workflow.ts:399

 * untrusted at runtime despite their static types — validate them here. In
 * particular `network` must be `bridge`/`none`: a stray `host` would otherwise
 * flow straight to `docker run --network host` and drop the network isolation.
 */
export function resolveContainerBackendConfig(
  cfg: { image?: string; network?: string; memoryMb?: number; pidsLimit?: number } | undefined
): ContainerBackendConfig {
  const network = cfg?.network;
  if (network !== undefined && network !== 'bridge' && network !== 'none') {
    throw new Error(
      `Invalid container.network '${network}' in .archon/config.yaml — must be ` +
        "'bridge' or 'none'. Host networking is not allowed for container isolation."
    );
  }
  // Positive INTEGERS — `docker run --memory`/`--pids-limit` reject fractions,
  // and Number.isFinite alone would let `512.5` through to a runtime docker error.
  const memoryMb = cfg?.memoryMb;
  if (memoryMb !== undefined && (!Number.isInteger(memoryMb) || memoryMb <= 0)) {
    throw new Error(
      `Invalid container.memoryMb '${String(memoryMb)}' — must be a positive integer (MiB).`
    );
  }
  const pidsLimit = cfg?.pidsLimit;
  if (pidsLimit !== undefined && (!Number.isInteger(pidsLimit) || pidsLimit <= 0)) {
    throw new Error(
      `Invalid container.pidsLimit '${String(pidsLimit)}' — must be a positive integer.`
    );
  }
  return {
    image: cfg?.image?.trim() || DEFAULT_RUNNER_IMAGE,
    network: network ?? 'bridge',
    memoryMb: memoryMb ?? 4096,
    pidsLimit: pidsLimit ?? 512,
  };
}

/**

View on GitHub (pinned to 0773b97458)

Solutions

Set `container.memoryMb` to a positive whole number of MiB, e.g. `memoryMb: 512`.
Quote nothing and avoid units: use 1024 for 1 GiB, not '1g'.
Remove the key to accept the backend default.

Example fix

// .archon/config.yaml (before)
container:
  memoryMb: 512.5
// after
container:
  memoryMb: 512

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const m = cfg?.container?.memoryMb;
if (m !== undefined && (!Number.isInteger(m) || m <= 0)) {
  throw new Error(`container.memoryMb must be a positive integer MiB value, got: ${String(m)}`);
}

Type guard

function isPositiveInteger(v: unknown): v is number {
  return typeof v === 'number' && Number.isInteger(v) && v > 0;
}

Try / catch

try {
  await runWorkflow(name, opts);
} catch (e) {
  if (String((e as Error).message).includes('Invalid container.memoryMb')) {
    console.error('Set container.memoryMb to a whole MiB number, e.g. memoryMb: 512.');
  }
}

Prevention

Remember the unit is MiB as a plain integer — no '512m'/'1g' docker strings.
Convert: 1 GiB = 1024, 2 GiB = 2048.
Avoid floats when tuning memory; round to whole MiB.

When it happens

Trigger: container.memoryMb set to a float (e.g. 512.5), zero, a negative number, or a non-numeric YAML scalar (string like '512m') passed to resolveContainerBackendConfig during workflow container setup.

Common situations: Copying a docker-style memory string ('512m', '1g') into the config; YAML unquoted strings staying strings; hand-tuning memory and typing a decimal; misreading the unit (the value is MiB, an integer).

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of coleam00/Archon@0773b97458 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3137bd9df9517400. Report an issue: GitHub.