invoke-ai/InvokeAI · error · ValueError

source_url must be an http or https URL

Error message

source_url must be an http or https URL

What it means

The same before-validator also enforces that a non-empty source_url string be an http or https URL. Any string lacking the https:// or http:// prefix raises this ValueError during model record validation.

Source

Thrown at invokeai/app/services/model_records/model_records_base.py:104

class ModelRecordChanges(BaseModelExcludeNull):
    """A set of changes to apply to a model."""

    # Changes applicable to all models
    source: Optional[str] = Field(description="original source of the model", default=None)
    source_type: Optional[ModelSourceType] = Field(description="type of model source", default=None)
    source_api_response: Optional[str] = Field(description="metadata from remote source", default=None)
    source_url: Optional[str] = Field(description="Optional URL for the model (e.g. download page)", default=None)

    @field_validator("source_url", mode="before")
    @classmethod
    def validate_source_url(cls, v: Any) -> Optional[str]:
        if v is None or v == "":
            return None
        if not isinstance(v, str):
            raise ValueError("source_url must be a string")
        if not v.startswith(("https://", "http://")):
            raise ValueError("source_url must be an http or https URL")
        return v

    name: Optional[str] = Field(description="Name of the model.", default=None)
    path: Optional[str] = Field(description="Path to the model.", default=None)
    description: Optional[str] = Field(description="Model description", default=None)
    base: Optional[BaseModelType] = Field(description="The base model.", default=None)
    type: Optional[ModelType] = Field(description="Type of model", default=None)
    key: Optional[str] = Field(description="Database ID for this model", default=None)
    hash: Optional[str] = Field(description="hash of model file", default=None)
    file_size: Optional[int] = Field(description="Size of model file", default=None)
    format: Optional[str] = Field(description="format of model file", default=None)
    trigger_phrases: Optional[set[str]] = Field(description="Set of trigger phrases for this model", default=None)
    default_settings: Optional[
        MainModelDefaultSettings
        | LoraModelDefaultSettings
        | ControlAdapterDefaultSettings
        | ExternalApiModelDefaultSettings
    ] = Field(description="Default settings for this model", default=None)

View on GitHub (pinned to 0b6a024f2f)

Solutions

1. Prefix the value with https:// (HuggingFace sources are https).
2. Use full absolute URLs, not repo ids or file paths — use path/local model fields for files.
3. Add client-side validation that the string starts with https:// or http:// before submitting.

Example fix

// before
const payload = { source_url: 'huggingface.co/stabilityai/sd-turbo' };
// after
const payload = { source_url: 'https://huggingface.co/stabilityai/sd-turbo' };

function isValidSourceUrl(v) {
  if (v === null || v === '') return true;
  return typeof v === 'string' && /^https?:\/\//.test(v);
}
if (!isValidSourceUrl(payload.source_url)) {
  payload.source_url = 'https://' + String(payload.source_url).replace(/^\/+/, '');
}

function isHttpUrl(v: unknown): v is string {
  return typeof v === 'string' && v.startsWith('https://') || typeof v === 'string' && v.startsWith('http://');
}

try {
  await api.addModelRecord(payload);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e).includes('http or https URL')) {
    payload.source_url = 'https://' + payload.source_url;
    return api.addModelRecord(payload);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Submitting source_url values like 'huggingface.co/org/repo' (scheme missing), 'ftp://...', 'file:///models/x', or a bare repo id 'org/repo'.

Common situations: Users typing a repo path without the scheme in install forms; config files with shorthand URLs; copying paths from a browser address bar minus the scheme; CLI scripts concatenating host+path manually.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• source_url must be a string
• stop must be greater than start
• cfg_scale must be greater than 1
• Face IDs must be a comma-separated list of integers (e.g. "1
• cfg_scale values must be finite.

AI-assisted analysis of invoke-ai/InvokeAI@0b6a024f2f (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/93add9baf19e1361. Report an issue: GitHub.