glzr-io/glazewm · error

Not a valid tiling direction

Error message

Not a valid tiling direction: {}

What it means

`TilingDirection::from_str` parses a user-supplied string into the `TilingDirection` enum. It only accepts the exact literals "horizontal" and "vertical"; any other string makes it bail with this message including the offending input.

Solutions

1. Use exactly "horizontal" or "vertical", all lowercase, no surrounding whitespace
2. Call `.trim().to_lowercase()` on the input before parsing
3. Match on the valid variants via `TilingDirection::iter()` or check the enum definition in packages/wm-common/src/tiling_direction.rs

Example fix

// before
let dir = "Horizontal".parse::<TilingDirection>()?;
// after
let dir = "horizontal".parse::<TilingDirection>()?;

fn is_valid_tiling_direction(s: &str) -> bool {
  matches!(s.trim().to_lowercase().as_str(), "horizontal" | "vertical")
}

fn as_tiling_direction(s: &str) -> Option<TilingDirection> {
  match s.trim().to_lowercase().as_str() {
    "horizontal" => Some(TilingDirection::Horizontal),
    "vertical" => Some(TilingDirection::Vertical),
    _ => None,
  }
}

match "Horizontal".parse::<TilingDirection>() {
  Ok(dir) => use_dir(dir),
  Err(e) => eprintln!("invalid tiling direction: {e}"),
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `"left".parse::<TilingDirection>()`, `TilingDirection::from_str("Horizontal")` (case mismatch), or binding a WM config/IPC value like "horiz" or "h" to a tiling direction.

Common situations: Typos in GlazeWM config files or IPC commands (e.g. `tiling_direction: horizontal ` with trailing whitespace, capitalized text, or translated values in keybinding definitions).

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• Shell exec failed for
• Shell exec failed for
• The workspace " " already exists
• Invalid tray menu event
• Shell exec failed for

AI-assisted analysis of glzr-io/glazewm@5709ad0a3c (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/38dc10ad18b90888. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/wm-common/src/tiling_direction.rs:69

  type Err = anyhow::Error;

  /// Parses a string into a tiling direction.
  ///
  /// Example:
  /// ```
  /// # use wm_common::TilingDirection;
  /// # use std::str::FromStr;
  /// let dir = TilingDirection::from_str("horizontal");
  /// assert_eq!(dir.unwrap(), TilingDirection::Horizontal);
  ///
  /// let dir = TilingDirection::from_str("vertical");
  /// assert_eq!(dir.unwrap(), TilingDirection::Vertical);
  /// ```
  fn from_str(unparsed: &str) -> anyhow::Result<Self> {
    match unparsed {
      "horizontal" => Ok(Self::Horizontal),
      "vertical" => Ok(Self::Vertical),
      _ => bail!("Not a valid tiling direction: {}", unparsed),
    }
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5709ad0a3c)