janhq/jan · warning · Error

No MLX model files found in repository

Error message

No MLX model files found in repository

What it means

Thrown when the HuggingFace repo resolved successfully but `repoInfo.siblings` is an empty array. The repo exists and the API call succeeded, but it contains zero files. This is the data-level counterpart to error 122 (which is the transport/null counterpart).

Source

Thrown at web-app/src/containers/MlxModelDownloadAction.tsx:128

  const handleDownloadMlxModel = useCallback(async () => {
    addLocalDownloadingModel(modelId)

    const modelPath = `${model.developer}/${modelName}`
    try {
      // Fetch repository info to get all files
      const repoInfo = await serviceHub
        .models()
        .fetchHuggingFaceRepo(modelPath, huggingfaceToken)

      if (!repoInfo || !repoInfo.siblings) {
        throw new Error('Failed to fetch repository files')
      }

      // Filter relevant model files for MLX
      const modelFiles = repoInfo.siblings

      if (modelFiles.length === 0) {
        throw new Error('No MLX model files found in repository')
      }

      // Get the MLX engine and import
      const engine = EngineManager.instance().get(
        'mlx'
      )
      if (!engine) {
        throw new Error('MLX engine not found')
      }

      // For MLX, we download the first safetensors file as the main model
      // and the extension will download all related files
      const mainSafetensorsFile = modelFiles.find((f) =>
        f.rfilename.toLowerCase().endsWith('.safetensors')
      )

      if (!mainSafetensorsFile) {
        throw new Error('No safetensors file found in repository')

View on GitHub (pinned to fad3f12a14)

Solutions

1. Open the repo on huggingface.co and confirm it has actual model files (`.safetensors`/`.gguf`).
2. If the repo is genuinely empty, surface a clearer message naming the repo so the user can pick another.
3. Treat siblings length 0 the same as 'not an MLX repo' and filter the hub listing upstream.

Example fix

// before
if (modelFiles.length === 0) {
  throw new Error('No MLX model files found in repository')
}

// after
if (modelFiles.length === 0) {
  throw new Error(`Repository ${modelPath} has no files. It may be empty or not an MLX model.`)
}

const repoInfo = await serviceHub.models().fetchHuggingFaceRepo(modelPath, huggingfaceToken)
if (!repoInfo?.siblings || repoInfo.siblings.length === 0) {
  toast.error('Repository has no files', { description: `${modelPath} may be empty or not an MLX model.` })
  return
}

function repoHasFiles(repo: unknown): repo is { siblings: { rfilename: string }[] } {
  return Array.isArray((repo as any)?.siblings) && (repo as any).siblings.length > 0
}

if (!repoHasFiles(repoInfo)) {
  toast.error('No MLX model files found', {
    description: `Repository ${modelPath} is empty. Pick an MLX-tagged repo.`,
  })
  return
}

When it happens

Trigger: `fetchHuggingFaceRepo` returns `{ siblings: [] }` — a freshly created empty model repo, a repo whose files were all LFS-pointer-only and filtered, or a repo that only contains `.gitattributes`/README at the API level.

Common situations: Selecting a stub/placeholder repo from the hub; a repo where all weights live under a path the API metadata excluded; the model was deleted but the card remained; typo led to a near-empty mirror repo.

Related errors

• Failed to fetch repository files
• No safetensors file found in repository
• Invalid GGUF file(s): ${error.message || 'File format valida
• Model already loaded!
• No active MLX session found for model: ${modelId}

AI-assisted analysis of janhq/jan@fad3f12a14 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5828be3688532a73. Report an issue: GitHub.