crewAIInc/crewAI · error · SystemExit

Invalid input '{location}': {error.get('msg')}

Error message

Invalid input '{location}': {error.get('msg')}

What it means

Pydantic validation of flow state inputs failed: state_model.model_validate(values) raised a ValidationError, and the CLI prints one red line per error with the dotted location path (error['loc']) and message (error['msg']) before exiting 1. This fires after missing-input checks pass, so the values exist but have the wrong type or violate field constraints.

Source

Thrown at lib/cli/src/crewai_cli/run_declarative_flow.py:378

        return [
            str(error["loc"][0])
            for error in exc.errors()
            if error.get("type") == "missing" and error.get("loc")
        ]
    return []


def _validate_flow_inputs(state_model: Any, values: dict[str, Any]) -> None:
    """Validate inputs against the state schema; exit with pointed type errors."""
    try:
        state_model.model_validate(values)
    except ValidationError as exc:
        for error in exc.errors():
            location = ".".join(str(part) for part in error.get("loc", ()))
            click.secho(
                f"  Invalid input '{location}': {error.get('msg')}", fg="red", err=True
            )
        raise SystemExit(1) from exc


def _coerce_input(raw: str, spec: dict[str, Any]) -> Any:
    """Best-effort coerce a prompted string to the field's JSON-schema type."""
    field_type = spec.get("type")
    if field_type == "integer":
        try:
            return int(raw)
        except ValueError:
            return raw
    if field_type == "number":
        try:
            return float(raw)
        except ValueError:
            return raw
    if field_type == "boolean":
        return raw.strip().lower() in {"1", "true", "yes", "y", "on"}
    return raw

View on GitHub (pinned to 754d7323be)

Solutions

1. Fix the value at the printed location to match the state model's declared type (e.g. send 42, not "42", for int fields).
2. If the value legitimately arrives as a string, add coercion in the state model (pydantic validators or use a coercing type) since _coerce_input only handles integer/number best-effort.
3. For nested locations like 'a.b.0', check the corresponding nested model/list element.
4. Validate inputs locally first: FlowState.model_validate(inputs) in a scratch script.

Example fix

# before
# state: max_items: int
$ crewai flow run --inputs '{"max_items": "ten"}'
#   Invalid input 'max_items': Input should be a valid integer ...

# after
$ crewai flow run --inputs '{"max_items": 10}'

from pydantic import ValidationError

try:
    StateModel.model_validate(inputs)
except ValidationError as exc:
    for err in exc.errors():
        print("fix:", err["loc"], err["msg"])
    raise SystemExit(1)

def inputs_match_state(state_model: type, values: dict) -> bool:
    """True when values already satisfy the flow's state schema."""
    try:
        state_model.model_validate(values)
        return True
    except ValidationError:
        return False

from pydantic import ValidationError

try:
    state_model.model_validate(values)
except ValidationError as exc:
    # print loc + msg per error, mirroring the CLI, then fix data not code
    details = "\n".join(f"{'.'.join(map(str, e['loc']))}: {e['msg']}" for e in exc.errors())
    raise SystemExit(f"invalid flow inputs:
{details}") from exc

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a string where the state model declares int/float/list (common when inputs come from CLI/env and _coerce_input's best-effort coercion fails — e.g. 'abc' for an integer field stays a string); enum/literal mismatches; constraint violations (gt/le, pattern); nested dict structures not matching nested models.

Common situations: Shell-sourced inputs that are always strings; JSON inputs files written by hand with quoted numbers; API responses feeding flow inputs with inconsistent types.

Related errors

• Missing required input '{name}'{suffix}
• Invalid --inputs JSON: {exc}
• Invalid --inputs JSON: expected an object.
• Missing required input '{name}'
• Invalid --definition path: {definition} is not a file.

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cb042a2fb51ba978. Report an issue: GitHub.