headroomlabs-ai/headroom · error · ValueError

default_importance must be 0.0-1.0, got {self.default_import

Error message

default_importance must be 0.0-1.0, got {self.default_importance}

What it means

ValueError raised in MemoryBridgeConfig.__post_init__ when default_importance is outside [0.0, 1.0]. The bridge assigns this importance to imported memories, and the rest of the memory system treats importance as a normalized float, so out-of-range values are rejected at config construction time.

Source

Thrown at headroom/memory/bridge_config.py:64

    md_format: MarkdownFormat = MarkdownFormat.AUTO
    user_id: str = "default"
    default_importance: float = 0.6
    heading_importance_map: dict[int, float] = field(
        default_factory=lambda: {1: 0.9, 2: 0.8, 3: 0.7, 4: 0.6, 5: 0.5, 6: 0.4}
    )
    sync_state_path: Path = field(default_factory=_paths.bridge_state_path)
    auto_import_on_startup: bool = False
    export_path: Path | None = None
    export_format: MarkdownFormat = MarkdownFormat.GENERIC
    extract_entities: bool = True
    chunk_by_section: bool = True
    dedup_similarity_threshold: float = 0.92
    source_tag: str = "memory_bridge"

    def __post_init__(self) -> None:
        """Validate configuration."""
        if not 0.0 <= self.default_importance <= 1.0:
            raise ValueError(f"default_importance must be 0.0-1.0, got {self.default_importance}")
        if not 0.0 <= self.dedup_similarity_threshold <= 1.0:
            raise ValueError(
                f"dedup_similarity_threshold must be 0.0-1.0, got {self.dedup_similarity_threshold}"
            )
        self.md_paths = [Path(p) if isinstance(p, str) else p for p in self.md_paths]
        if isinstance(self.sync_state_path, str):
            self.sync_state_path = Path(self.sync_state_path)
        if self.export_path and isinstance(self.export_path, str):
            self.export_path = Path(self.export_path)

View on GitHub (pinned to 322425c43b)

Solutions

1. Use a fraction in [0.0, 1.0], e.g. default_importance=0.75
2. If your config uses 1-10, convert before constructing: default_importance=raw / 10.0
3. Add a unit check where the config value originates (YAML/CLI parser) so bad values fail with clearer context

Example fix

# before
cfg = MemoryBridgeConfig(default_importance=75)  # ValueError: must be 0.0-1.0

# after
cfg = MemoryBridgeConfig(default_importance=0.75)

def clamp_fraction(name: str, value: float) -> float:
    if not 0.0 <= value <= 1.0:
        raise ValueError(f'{name} must be in [0,1], got {value}')
    return value

cfg = MemoryBridgeConfig(
    default_importance=clamp_fraction('default_importance', raw_importance),
)

def is_valid_importance(v) -> bool:
    return isinstance(v, (int, float)) and not isinstance(v, bool) and 0.0 <= v <= 1.0

try:
    cfg = MemoryBridgeConfig(default_importance=raw)
except ValueError as e:
    logger.error('bridge config invalid: %s', e)
    cfg = MemoryBridgeConfig()  # fall back to defaults

When it happens

Trigger: MemoryBridgeConfig(default_importance=5), default_importance=-0.1, or a value parsed from YAML/CLI as a string like 'high' that coerces unexpectedly; the dataclass __post_init__ runs immediately on construction.

Common situations: Copy-pasting a 1-10 importance scale from another tool; percentage (75) instead of fraction (0.75); config files shared between components with different ranges.

Related errors

• dedup_similarity_threshold must be 0.0-1.0, got {self.dedup_
• vector_dimension must be positive, got {self.vector_dimensio
• hnsw_ef_construction must be positive, got {self.hnsw_ef_con
• hnsw_m must be positive, got {self.hnsw_m}
• hnsw_ef_search must be positive, got {self.hnsw_ef_search}

AI-assisted analysis of headroomlabs-ai/headroom@322425c43b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/edba53cb2e73eb55. Report an issue: GitHub.