crewAIInc/crewAI · error · ValueError

action='exists' requires 'path'

Error message

action='exists' requires 'path'

What it means

For action='exists' DaytonaFileTool._run needs a 'path' to test existence via self._exists(sandbox, path). With path=None it raises ValueError immediately; the sandbox is never contacted. This check runs before any I/O, so catching it early costs nothing.

Source

Thrown at lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/tools/daytona_sandbox_tool/daytona_file_tool.py:288

                return self._list(sandbox, path)
            if action == "delete":
                if path is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='delete' requires 'path'")
                sandbox.fs.delete_file(path, recursive=recursive)
                return {"status": "deleted", "path": path}
            if action == "mkdir":
                if path is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='mkdir' requires 'path'")
                mkdir_mode = mode or "0755"
                sandbox.fs.create_folder(path, mkdir_mode)
                return {"status": "created", "path": path, "mode": mkdir_mode}
            if action == "info":
                if path is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='info' requires 'path'")
                return self._info(sandbox, path)
            if action == "exists":
                if path is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='exists' requires 'path'")
                return self._exists(sandbox, path)
            if action == "move":
                if path is None or destination is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='move' requires 'path' and 'destination'")
                sandbox.fs.move_files(path, destination)
                return {"status": "moved", "from": path, "to": destination}
            if action == "find":
                if path is None or pattern is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='find' requires 'path' and 'pattern'")
                return self._find(sandbox, path, pattern)
            if action == "search":
                if path is None or pattern is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='search' requires 'path' and 'pattern'")
                return self._search(sandbox, path, pattern)
            if action == "chmod":
                if path is None:
                    raise ValueError("action='chmod' requires 'path'")
                return self._chmod(sandbox, path, mode=mode, owner=owner, group=group)

View on GitHub (pinned to 754d7323be)

Solutions

  1. Pass the target explicitly: _run(action='exists', path='/workspace/in.txt').
  2. Add a pre-call guard in your orchestrator that rejects action='exists' without a path.
  3. Fix the agent prompt/tool description so existence checks always carry the full path.

Example fix

# before
file_tool._run(action='exists')

# after
file_tool._run(action='exists', path='/workspace/inputs/data.csv')
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

def file_exists(file_tool, path: str) -> bool:
    if not path or not isinstance(path, str):
        raise ValueError("path must be a non-empty string for action='exists'")
    return bool(file_tool._run(action='exists', path=path).get('exists'))

Type guard

def is_nonempty_path(value: object) -> bool:
    return isinstance(value, str) and bool(value.strip())

Try / catch

try:
    result = file_tool._run(action='exists', path=path)
except ValueError as e:
    if "requires 'path'" in str(e):
        return False  # cannot probe without a target; treat as unknown
    raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling _run(action='exists') without path; an agent probing 'does the file exist?' but forgetting to include the filename; passing the path inside a nested dict instead of as the top-level 'path' kwarg.

Common situations: Agents that phrase existence checks in natural language and the tool-call formatter drops the path; testing the tool with a bare action string.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/26c8f995f25abe54. Report an issue: GitHub.