deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness · error · Error

terminal-bash: sandbox returned empty argv

Error message

terminal-bash: sandbox returned empty argv

What it means

Error "terminal-bash: sandbox returned empty argv" thrown in deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness.

Source

Thrown at packages/terminal/terminal-bash/src/index.ts:181

    private readonly ctx: Context,
    private readonly config: ResolvedConfig,
    private readonly spawnTerminal: (
      spec: SubprocessTerminalSpawnSpec,
    ) => Promise<SubprocessTerminalHandle> = spec => ctx.subprocess.spawnTerminal(spec),
    private readonly createSession: (
      terminal: SubprocessTerminalHandle,
      config: ResolvedConfig,
    ) => LocalPtySession = (terminal, config) => new LocalPtySession(terminal, config),
  ) {
    this.type = config.backendType
  }

  async spawn(spec: TerminalBackendSpawnSpec): Promise<LocalPtySession> {
    spec.signal?.throwIfAborted()
    ensureSandboxModeFence(this.ctx, spec.owner)
    const policy = this.ctx.sandboxPolicy.resolve({ session: spec.owner.session })
    const argv = spawnArgv(this.ctx, this.config, policy)
    if (argv[0] === undefined) throw new Error('terminal-bash: sandbox returned empty argv')
    const terminal = await this.spawnTerminal({
      argv,
      cwd: spec.cwd ?? policy.workspaceRoot,
      env: childEnvironment(spec, this.config.shellDialect),
      rows: this.config.rows,
      cols: this.config.cols,
      graceMs: this.config.disposeGraceMs,
      signal: spec.signal,
    })
    const session = this.createSession(terminal, this.config)
    try {
      await startupSession(session, this.config.shellDialect, spec.signal)
      return session
    } catch (error) {
      try {
        await session.close('PTY startup failed')
      } catch (closeError: unknown) {
        throw new TerminalBackendCleanupError(error, closeError)

View on GitHub (pinned to b150a551b8)

Solutions

1. Fix the sandbox provider so it returns a non-empty argv for the wrapped command.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/terminal/terminal-bash/src/index.ts:181 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/316be737d4094d68. Report an issue: GitHub.