iflytek/astron-agent · error · Exception

Uploaded file is empty

Error message

Uploaded file is empty

What it means

process_file in ragflow_utils.py reads the uploaded UploadFile into memory and raises a generic Exception when the resulting byte buffer has length 0. This guards downstream RAGFlow ingestion from receiving a zero-byte document that would silently produce no chunks. It means the upload reached the server but contained no content.

Solutions

1. Check the uploaded file size on the client/server before calling process_file and reject zero-byte files with a clear 400 response
2. Verify the multipart form field actually carries the file bytes (correct field name, enctype=multipart/form-data)
3. If another read happened before process_file, ensure file_input.seek(0) is called first
4. Log filename and client metadata to find the source of empty uploads

Example fix

// before
content, name = await process_file(file)
// after
raw = await file.read()
if not raw:
    raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Uploaded file is empty")
content, name = await process_file(file)

raw = await file.read()
if not raw:
    raise ValueError(f"uploaded file {file.filename!r} is empty")
await file.seek(0)

def is_nonempty(data: bytes) -> bool:
    return isinstance(data, bytes) and len(data) > 0

try:
    content, name = await process_file(file)
except Exception as e:
    if "Uploaded file is empty" in str(e):
        return JSONResponse(status_code=400, content={"detail": "File is empty"})
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling process_file with an UploadFile whose streamed body is empty — e.g. the client posted a zero-byte file, the multipart form field pointed at no data, or a prior consumer already read the stream without seeking back.

Common situations: Frontend sends an empty file placeholder; a curl/script uploads an empty file; a file was truncated during transfer; an intermediary step consumed the stream leaving nothing to read.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• LONG_CONTENT_CHAT_ID_ERROR
• LONG_CONTENT_WRONG_BUSINESS_TYPE
• LONG_CONTENT_MISS_FILE_INFO
• LONG_CONTENT_FILE_SIZE_OUT_LIMIT
• 8001

AI-assisted analysis of iflytek/astron-agent@5e758547a8 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/317fe11eb0370ea6. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at core/knowledge/infra/ragflow/ragflow_utils.py:293

                return await RagflowUtils._download_url_file(file_input)
            else:
                raise ValueError(
                    f"Unsupported file input: {file_input}. "
                    "Only HTTP/HTTPS URLs are supported for string input."
                )
        else:
            # Handle UploadFile objects
            file_content = await file_input.read()
            filename = file_input.filename or "uploaded_file"

            logger.info(
                "Processing uploaded file: %s, size: %d bytes",
                filename,
                len(file_content),
            )

            if len(file_content) == 0:
                raise Exception("Uploaded file is empty")

            # Reset file pointer for potential future reads
            await file_input.seek(0)

            return file_content, filename

    @staticmethod
    def _normalize_expected_chunk_count(raw_count: Any) -> Optional[int]:
        """Return a usable non-negative metadata count when one is available."""
        try:
            expected_count = int(raw_count) if raw_count is not None else None
        except (TypeError, ValueError):
            return None
        if expected_count is not None and expected_count < 0:
            return None
        return expected_count

    @staticmethod

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