What causes "[history] exclude in {} is not an array" in jdx/mise?

Edit the reported file to make exclude an array: `exclude = ["glob1", "glob2"]`

[history] exclude in

Error message

[history] exclude in {} is not an array

What it means

In edit_exclude(), after ensuring the `[history]` table, the code gets/creates `history.exclude` and expects it to be a TOML array of globs. If `exclude` exists but is not an array (e.g. a string or table), it bails with the file path rather than clobbering the existing value.

Solutions

Edit the reported file to make exclude an array: `exclude = ["glob1", "glob2"]`
If a single glob was intended, wrap it in brackets
Re-run the dot track/untrack command afterwards

Example fix

// before (config.toml)
[history]
exclude = "*.log"
// after (config.toml)
[history]
exclude = ["*.log"]

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

awk '/^exclude/{ if ($0 !~ /\[/) print "history.exclude must be an array" }' "${MISE_GLOBAL_CONFIG:-$HOME/.config/mise/config.toml}"

Prevention

Write history.exclude as a TOML array of strings, never a bare string
Validate TOML types with a linter after editing the global config
Prefer `mise settings` commands over hand-editing when available

When it happens

Trigger: Global config contains `[history] exclude = "some-glob"` (string) or `exclude = { ... }` (table) when a track/untrack command tries to append/remove an exclude glob.

Common situations: User wrote exclude as a single quoted string instead of an array; config generated by another tool with different shape; manual merge of config files producing wrong type.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jdx/mise@533346cc37 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/560176394570f2f2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/cli/dotfiles/track.rs:534

/// Adds (or removes) a glob in `[history] exclude` of the global config.
/// Returns whether the file changed.
pub(crate) fn edit_exclude(glob: &str, add: bool) -> Result<bool> {
    use toml_edit::{Item, Value};
    let global = crate::config::global_shared_config_path();
    let mut doc = read_document(&global)?;
    let history = doc
        .entry("history")
        .or_insert(Item::Table(toml_edit::Table::new()));
    let Some(table) = history.as_table_mut() else {
        eyre::bail!("[history] in {} is not a table", display_path(&global));
    };
    table.set_implicit(false);
    let exclude = table
        .entry("exclude")
        .or_insert(Item::Value(Value::Array(toml_edit::Array::new())));
    let Some(array) = exclude.as_array_mut() else {
        eyre::bail!(
            "[history] exclude in {} is not an array",
            display_path(&global)
        );
    };
    let present = array.iter().any(|value| value.as_str() == Some(glob));
    let changed = if add && !present {
        array.push(Value::String(toml_edit::Formatted::new(glob.to_string())));
        true
    } else if !add && present {
        array.retain(|value| value.as_str() != Some(glob));
        true
    } else {
        false
    };
    if changed {
        crate::file::write(&global, doc.to_string())?;
    }
    Ok(changed)

View on GitHub (pinned to 533346cc37)