invoke-ai/InvokeAI · error · NotAMatchError

model path is not a file

Error message

model path is not a file

What it means

raise_if_not_file asserts that the ModelOnDisk path is a regular file. Config classes that represent single-file model formats (e.g. single checkpoint files) call this during from_model_on_disk probing; if the path is a directory (or a nonexistent/special file), NotAMatchError is raised so the next candidate config can be tried.

Source

Thrown at invokeai/backend/model_manager/configs/identification_utils.py:160

        candidate_config_class: The config class that is being tested.
        override_fields: The override fields provided by the user.

    Raises:
        NotAMatch if any override field is invalid for the config class.
    """
    for field_name, override_value in override_fields.items():
        if field_name not in candidate_config_class.model_fields:
            raise NotAMatchError(f"unknown override field: {field_name}")
        try:
            PydanticFieldValidator.validate_field(candidate_config_class, field_name, override_value)
        except ValidationError as e:
            raise NotAMatchError(f"invalid override for field '{field_name}': {e}") from e


def raise_if_not_file(mod: ModelOnDisk) -> None:
    """Raise NotAMatch if the model path is not a file."""
    if not mod.path.is_file():
        raise NotAMatchError("model path is not a file")


def raise_if_not_dir(mod: ModelOnDisk) -> None:
    """Raise NotAMatch if the model path is not a directory."""
    if not mod.path.is_dir():
        raise NotAMatchError("model path is not a directory")


def state_dict_has_any_keys_exact(state_dict: dict[str | int, Any], keys: str | set[str]) -> bool:
    """Returns true if the state dict has any of the specified keys."""
    _keys = {keys} if isinstance(keys, str) else keys
    return any(key in state_dict for key in _keys)


def state_dict_has_any_keys_starting_with(state_dict: dict[str | int, Any], prefixes: str | set[str]) -> bool:
    """Returns true if the state dict has any keys starting with any of the specified prefixes."""
    _prefixes = {prefixes} if isinstance(prefixes, str) else prefixes
    return any(any(key.startswith(prefix) for prefix in _prefixes) for key in state_dict.keys() if isinstance(key, str))

View on GitHub (pinned to 0b6a024f2f)

Solutions

1. Verify the path with os.path.isfile(); point it at the actual weights file (e.g. model.safetensors).
2. If the model is a diffusers directory, use the directory config class instead of the single-file one.
3. Fix broken symlinks so the path resolves to a real file.
4. Rescan the models directory if InvokeAI's cached path metadata is stale.

Example fix

// before
ModelOnDisk(Path("/models/sd15/"))  # directory
// after
ModelOnDisk(Path("/models/sd15/v1-5-pruned-emaonly.safetensors"))

from pathlib import Path
p = Path(model_path)
assert p.is_file(), f"expected a single-file model, got: {p}"

def is_model_file(p) -> bool:
    from pathlib import Path
    return Path(p).is_file() and Path(p).suffix in {".safetensors", ".ckpt", ".bin"}

try:
    record = from_model_on_disk(mod)
except NotAMatchError as e:
    if str(e) == "model path is not a file":
        logger.warning("skipping directory path with single-file config: %s", mod.path)

When it happens

Trigger: from_model_on_disk probing a single-file model config against a directory path (or vice versa), e.g. scanning a diffusers-style folder with a checkpoint-file config class.

Common situations: Registering a folder of weights instead of the .safetensors/.ckpt file itself; path points to a directory containing the model rather than the model; broken symlinks to files.

Related errors

• Not a valid file or directory: {model_path}
• model path is not a directory
• No existing parent found for {path}
• Empty path segments not allowed in subfolder path
• Failed to remove image from board

AI-assisted analysis of invoke-ai/InvokeAI@0b6a024f2f (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3bafdea496a51f92. Report an issue: GitHub.