deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness · error · Error

a continuing Ralph report needs nextSteps and an empty block

Error message

a continuing Ralph report needs nextSteps and an empty blocker

What it means

Error "a continuing Ralph report needs nextSteps and an empty blocker" thrown in deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness.

Source

Thrown at packages/workflow/tool-ralph/src/index.ts:128

}

function validateReport(report) {
  if (report === null || typeof report !== 'object' || Array.isArray(report)) {
    throw new Error('Ralph child returned no structured round report')
  }
  if (!normalizedText(report.summary)) {
    throw new Error('Ralph round report summary must be non-empty and normalized')
  }
  if (!normalizedList(report.evidence) || !normalizedList(report.nextSteps)) {
    throw new Error('Ralph round report evidence and nextSteps must contain only non-empty normalized strings')
  }
  if (typeof report.blocker !== 'string' || report.blocker !== report.blocker.trim()) {
    throw new Error('Ralph round report blocker must be a normalized string')
  }
  switch (report.status) {
    case 'continue':
      if (report.nextSteps.length === 0 || report.blocker !== '') {
        throw new Error('a continuing Ralph report needs nextSteps and an empty blocker')
      }
      break
    case 'complete':
      if (report.evidence.length === 0 || report.nextSteps.length !== 0 || report.blocker !== '') {
        throw new Error('a complete Ralph report needs evidence, no nextSteps, and an empty blocker')
      }
      break
    case 'blocked':
      if (!normalizedText(report.blocker)) {
        throw new Error('a blocked Ralph report needs a concrete blocker')
      }
      break
    default:
      throw new Error('Ralph round report status is invalid')
  }
  const serialized = JSON.stringify(report)
  if (serialized.length > args.maxHandoffChars) {
    throw new Error('Ralph round report exceeds maxHandoffChars (' + serialized.length + ' > ' + args.maxHandoffChars + ')')

View on GitHub (pinned to b150a551b8)

Solutions

1. For a continuing round, the child must list concrete nextSteps and leave blocker empty; fix the report prompt so continuing rounds always plan the next step.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/workflow/tool-ralph/src/index.ts:128 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness@b150a551b8 (2026-08-24). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7997160bf97d41c4. Report an issue: GitHub.