What causes "enabled accounts were prepared" in jdx/mise?

Define the managed accounts in your configuration so `configured_accounts` is populated

enabled accounts were prepared

Error message

enabled accounts were prepared

What it means

During bootstrap of managed (system) accounts, `accounts_enabled` gates access to `configured_accounts`, and the `.expect` asserts that when accounts are enabled the config preparation step already produced the parsed account list. The panic means accounts were enabled (via settings/flags) but `configured_accounts` was never populated — the config that should define them is missing or failed earlier parsing.

Solutions

Define the managed accounts in your configuration so `configured_accounts` is populated
Disable account management (`accounts_enabled = false` / remove the enabling setting) if you don't use it
Verify the config file containing the accounts section is discovered and trusted (`mise trust`, correct path)
Check key spelling/casing of the accounts config section

Example fix

# before (mise.toml) — accounts enabled but none configured
[settings]
system_accounts = true
# after
[settings]
system_accounts = true

[[system.accounts]]
name = "deploy"
uid = 1500

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# ensure accounts are both enabled AND configured before bootstrapping
mise settings get system_accounts && grep -q 'system.accounts' mise.toml || echo 'accounts enabled but none configured'

Type guard

function accountsReady(cfg) { return !cfg.settings?.accounts_enabled || Array.isArray(cfg.system?.accounts) && cfg.system.accounts.length > 0; }

Try / catch

if mise bootstrap 2>&1 | grep -q 'enabled accounts were prepared'; then echo 'define the accounts section in config or disable account management'; fi

Prevention

Never enable account management without also defining the accounts section
Run `mise trust` on the config file that defines accounts
Validate config keys against the schema (`mise settings` docs) after edits

When it happens

Trigger: Running a bootstrap flow (e.g. `mise bootstrap`/system setup) with account management enabled while the configuration contained no `[system.accounts]`-style section, or the config file that defines accounts was not loaded/failed validation earlier.

Common situations: User enables account management in settings but never defines the accounts in mise.toml / the system config; a mistyped config key means the accounts section parses to None; config file not trusted or not discovered.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is required", "must be set", "missing required field": configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jdx/mise@afd2eddd3a (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7630937b874ac8c8. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/cli/bootstrap.rs:1359

    /// Every bootstrap part in order. Returns what ran for the generation
    /// record; declined prompts end the run early with a note.
    async fn run_phases(&self) -> Result<Summary> {
        let mut config = Config::get().await?;
        let mut hooks = system::hooks_from_config(&config);
        let skip = self.skip_parts();
        let summary = Summary { message: None };
        let accounts_enabled = !skip.contains(&BootstrapPart::Accounts);
        let files_enabled = !skip.contains(&BootstrapPart::Files);
        let configured_accounts =
            if accounts_enabled || (cfg!(target_os = "linux") && files_enabled) {
                Some(system::accounts::prepare_requests_from_config(&config)?)
            } else {
                None
            };
        let managed_accounts = accounts_enabled.then(|| {
            configured_accounts
                .as_ref()
                .expect("enabled accounts were prepared")
        });
        let secrets = system::secrets::resolve(&config, self.prompt_secrets)?;
        let managed_system_files = if !files_enabled {
            None
        } else {
            Some(system::managed_files::prepare_requests_from_config(
                &config, &secrets,
            )?)
        };
        if let Some((files, directories)) = &managed_system_files {
            system::managed_files::validate_principals(
                files,
                directories,
                configured_accounts.as_ref(),
                accounts_enabled,
            )?;
        }
        let services_enabled = !skip.contains(&BootstrapPart::Services);

View on GitHub (pinned to afd2eddd3a)