What causes "automation_saved_script_version_invalid" in different-ai/openwork?

Create a new version of the script from a valid codemode payload and re-point the automation at it.

automation_saved_script_version_invalid

automation_saved_script_version_invalid

Error message

automation_saved_script_version_invalid

What it means

Thrown in validateWorkflowAutomationAction when parseCodemodeScriptPayload fails on the saved version's normalizedPayloadJson. The version row exists but its stored payload is not a valid codemode script payload, so the automation cannot be validated.

Source

Thrown at ee/apps/den-api/src/workflows.ts:578

      eq(ConfigObjectTable.objectType, "workflow"),
      eq(ConfigObjectTable.status, "active"),
      isNull(ConfigObjectTable.deletedAt),
    ))
    .innerJoin(PluginConfigObjectTable, and(
      eq(PluginConfigObjectTable.configObjectId, ConfigObjectTable.id),
      eq(PluginConfigObjectTable.pluginId, pluginId),
      isNull(PluginConfigObjectTable.removedAt),
    ))
    .where(and(
      eq(ConfigObjectVersionTable.id, configObjectVersionId),
      eq(ConfigObjectVersionTable.configObjectId, configObjectId),
      eq(ConfigObjectVersionTable.organizationId, organizationId),
      eq(ConfigObjectVersionTable.isDeletedVersion, false),
    )).limit(1)
  const version = rows[0]?.version
  if (!version) throw new Error("automation_saved_script_version_not_found")
  const parsed = parseCodemodeScriptPayload(version.normalizedPayloadJson)
  if (!parsed.ok) throw new Error("automation_saved_script_version_invalid")
  if (parsed.payload.inputSchema) {
    const validation = validateCodemodeScriptInput(parsed.payload.inputSchema, input.action.input)
    if (!validation.ok) throw new Error("automation_saved_script_input_invalid")
  }
}

export async function saveWorkflow(input: {
  organizationId: string
  ownerMemberId: string
  workflow: SaveWorkflowInput
  buildTools: () => Promise<BuiltCodemodeTools>
  context?: PluginArchActorContext
}): Promise<{ pluginId: string; configObjectId: string; configObjectVersionId: string }> {
  const organizationId = normalizeDenTypeId("organization", input.organizationId)
  const ownerMemberId = normalizeDenTypeId("member", input.ownerMemberId)
  const requestedPluginId = input.workflow.pluginId
    ? normalizeDenTypeId("plugin", input.workflow.pluginId)
    : null

View on GitHub (pinned to 2b7df46e8a)

Solutions

Create a new version of the script from a valid codemode payload and re-point the automation at it.
Re-normalize the version payload with the current parser/writer so normalizedPayloadJson is valid.
Inspect normalizedPayloadJson for corruption and repair or delete the bad version.

Example fix

// before
// automation pinned to a legacy version with non-codemode payload
action: { configObjectVersionId: legacyVersionId }
// after
const v2 = await saveWorkflowVersion({ configObjectId, payload: validCodemodePayload })
action: { configObjectVersionId: v2.id }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const parsed = parseCodemodeScriptPayload(version.normalizedPayloadJson)
if (!parsed.ok) throw new Error("version payload invalid before automation save")

Type guard

const isValidCodemodeVersion = (v: {normalizedPayloadJson: string}) => parseCodemodeScriptPayload(v.normalizedPayloadJson).ok

Try / catch

try {
  await updateAutomation({ configObjectVersionId, ... })
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === "automation_saved_script_version_invalid") {
    // create a fresh valid version and re-point the automation
  } else throw e
}

Prevention

Never edit normalizedPayloadJson manually.
Re-normalize old versions after schema migrations.
Validate payload parsability in CI for published versions.

When it happens

Trigger: Creating/updating an automation whose referenced version was written by an older schema, corrupted, or written by a different pipeline that does not produce codemode-normalized JSON.

Common situations: Schema/format migrations leaving old versions unparsable; manual DB edits to normalizedPayloadJson; importing versions from another environment with an incompatible format.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of different-ai/openwork@2b7df46e8a (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4c914cb4bdcb5e9a. Report an issue: GitHub.