invalid bootstrap {kind} name '{name}': use at most 32 ASCII

Error message

invalid bootstrap {kind} name '{name}': use at most 32 ASCII letters, digits, '_' or '-', with an optional trailing '$'

What it means

Bootstrap account (user or group) names are validated against passwd/group-safe rules: at most 32 characters of ASCII letters, digits, '_' or '-', with an optional trailing '$'. Names that break these rules would produce invalid /etc/passwd or /etc/group entries, so mise rejects them up front.

Source

Thrown at src/system/accounts.rs:718

    )
}

fn validate_name(kind: &str, name: &str) -> Result<()> {
    let base = name.strip_suffix('$').unwrap_or(name);
    let mut characters = base.chars();
    let valid = !name.is_empty()
        && name.len() <= 32
        && characters
            .next()
            .is_some_and(|character| character == '_' || character.is_ascii_alphabetic())
        && characters.all(|character| {
            character == '_'
                || character == '-'
                || character.is_ascii_digit()
                || character.is_ascii_alphabetic()
        });
    if !valid {
        bail!(
            "invalid bootstrap {kind} name '{name}': use at most 32 ASCII letters, digits, '_' or '-', with an optional trailing '$'"
        );
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn validate_account_path(name: &str, field: &str, path: &std::path::Path) -> Result<()> {
    if !path.is_absolute() {
        bail!("bootstrap user '{name}' {field} must be an absolute path");
    }
    if path
        .to_string_lossy()
        .chars()
        .any(|character| character == ':' || character == '\n' || character == '\r')
    {
        bail!("bootstrap user '{name}' {field} must not contain ':', CR, or LF");
    }
    Ok(())

View on GitHub (pinned to afd2eddd3a)

Solutions

Shorten the name to 32 characters or fewer
Replace invalid characters with '-' or '_'
Drop any trailing or embedded special characters; keep an optional single trailing '$'

Example fix

// before
[users."ci.bot@example.com"]
// after
[users."ci-bot"]

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function validAccountName(name) {
  return /^[A-Za-z0-9_-]{1,31}\$?$/.test(name) && name.length <= 32;
}

Try / catch

try {
  await run('mise bootstrap apply');
} catch (e) {
  if (/invalid bootstrap .* name/.test(e.message)) {
    throw new Error('Fix the account name in config: letters/digits/_/- up to 32 chars, optional trailing $');
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Validate names with /^[A-Za-z0-9_-]{1,31}\$?$/ before writing config
Never derive account names from emails, URLs, or branch names without sanitizing
Cap generated names at 32 characters

When it happens

Trigger: Declaring a bootstrap user or group whose name exceeds 32 characters, contains spaces, dots, uppercase-non-ASCII, or other special characters, or ends with characters other than the allowed set ('$' allowed only trailing).

Common situations: Using an email address as a username ('ci.bot@example.com'); names with dots from Windows conventions; names generated from branch or project names containing slashes.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid id" errors: invalid identifier format — why libraries reject IDs before lookup, and how to fix them — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jdx/mise@afd2eddd3a (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a1b6839ae55b62c7. Report an issue: GitHub.