What causes "uploadErrorMessage(metadata.filename, error)" in different-ai/openwork?

Inspect the wrapped cause from uploadErrorMessage and retry the send if the failure was transient (network).

uploadErrorMessage(metadata.filename, error)

Error message

uploadErrorMessage(metadata.filename, error)

What it means

When uploading an attachment into the worker inbox via endpoint.client.uploadInbox, any thrown error is re-thrown as 'uploadErrorMessage(metadata.filename, error)' so the failure names the file and cause. This wraps network failures, permission errors, and client-side I/O errors from reading the file.

Source

Thrown at apps/app/src/react-app/domains/session/sync/attachment-file-part.ts:377

    // chip already shows its uploading state. When the transport uploads the
    // original file from its local path, re-encoding would detach that path,
    // so the original bytes are sent instead.
    const file = input.endpoint.client.uploadInboxPrefersOriginalFile?.(attachment.file)
      ? attachment.file
      : await compressImageFile(attachment.file);
    const metadata = resolveAttachmentFileMetadata(file);
    const id = input.createId ? input.createId() : randomAttachmentId();
    const inboxPath = buildChatAttachmentInboxPath({
      sessionId: input.sessionId,
      filename: metadata.filename,
      id,
    });

    let result: InboxUploadResult;
    try {
      result = await input.endpoint.client.uploadInbox(workspaceId, file, { path: inboxPath });
    } catch (error) {
      throw new Error(uploadErrorMessage(metadata.filename, error));
    }

    if (result.ok === false) {
      throw new Error(`Failed to copy attachment "${metadata.filename}" into this worker workspace: upload was rejected`);
    }
    if (!result.path.trim()) {
      throw new Error(`Failed to copy attachment "${metadata.filename}" into this worker workspace: upload did not return a path`);
    }
    if (result.bytes !== file.size) {
      throw new Error(`Failed to copy attachment "${metadata.filename}" into this worker workspace: expected ${file.size} bytes, wrote ${result.bytes}`);
    }

    const workspacePath = workspaceInboxPath(result.path);
    const absolutePath = joinWorkspaceRelativePath(workspaceRoot, workspacePath);
    uploaded.push({
      filename: metadata.filename,
      mime: metadata.mime,
      bytes: result.bytes,

View on GitHub (pinned to 2b7df46e8a)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped cause from uploadErrorMessage and retry the send if the failure was transient (network).
Re-attach the file if it was moved or deleted; verify it is readable.
Check server logs/inbox permissions if uploads persistently fail.

Example fix

// before: await parts(store, draft) // throws with wrapped upload error | // after: try { await parts(store, draft) } catch (e) { showUploadError(e); } // names filename + cause

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

try { await attachment.file.slice(0, 1).arrayBuffer(); } catch { showToast(`Cannot read "${attachment.filename}" — re-attach the file`); return; }

Try / catch

try { const parts = await composerAttachmentsToWorkspaceFileParts({ attachments, endpoint, sessionId, workspaceRoot }); } catch (e) { showToast(String(e.message)); if (isTransient(e)) { await retrySend(); } }

Prevention

Verify attached files still exist and are readable at send time.
Retry transient network failures with backoff before giving up.
Surface the wrapped filename+cause message instead of a generic failure.

When it happens

Trigger: uploadInbox throws — server unreachable, HTTP error on the upload request, file read failure (file moved/deleted/permission revoked after attach), or the inbox path could not be created.

Common situations: Temporary server outage while sending a message with attachments; the user moved/renamed/deleted the attached file on disk after adding it to the composer; sandbox permission prevents reading the file.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of different-ai/openwork@2b7df46e8a (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66d6e44b08dff066. Report an issue: GitHub.