kovidgoyal/kitty · warning

Ignoring invalid config line: {line!r}

Error message

Ignoring invalid config line: {line!r}

What it means

While parsing a kitty config file, a non-empty non-comment line did not match kitty's `key value` pattern; the line is skipped.

Source

Thrown at kitty/conf/utils.py:292

        return False


def parse_line(
    line: str,
    parse_conf_item: ItemParser,
    ans: dict[str, Any],
    base_path_for_includes: str,
    effective_config_lines: Callable[[str, str], None],
    memory: Memory,
    accumulate_bad_lines: list[BadLine] | None = None,
    allow_geninclude: bool = True,
) -> None:
    line = line.strip()
    if not line or line.startswith('#'):
        return
    m = key_pat.match(line)
    if m is None:
        log_error(f'Ignoring invalid config line: {line!r}')
        return
    key, val = m.groups()
    if key.endswith('include') and key in include_keys:
        val = expandvars(os.path.expanduser(val.strip()), {'KITTY_OS': os_name()})
        if key == 'globinclude':
            from pathlib import Path

            vals = tuple(map(lambda x: str(os.fspath(x)), sorted(Path(base_path_for_includes).glob(val))))
        elif key == 'envinclude':
            from fnmatch import fnmatchcase

            for x in os.environ:
                if fnmatchcase(x, val):
                    with currently_parsing.set_file(f'<env var: {x}>'):
                        _parse(
                            NamedLineIterator(os.path.join(base_path_for_includes, ''), iter(os.environ[x].splitlines())),
                            parse_conf_item,
                            ans,

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

1. Recheck the logged line — add the missing space between key and value
2. Retype the line instead of copy-pasting to kill smart quotes
3. Keep `key value` form: one space, ASCII

Example fix

# before
font_size11.0
# after
font_size 11.0

import re
key_pat = re.compile(r'^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\s+(.+)$')
assert key_pat.match(line), f'bad line: {line!r}'

When it happens

Trigger: Lines with no space between key and value, stray characters, or values starting before the key; key_pat.match fails.

Common situations: Missing space (`font_size11.0`), smart/curly quotes introduced by copy-paste from websites, or stray unicode/BOM characters at line start.

Related errors

• This should be run as kitten broadcast
• No option named: {k}
• No custom kitten named {kitten} found
• Not a number: {x} with error: {e}
• Not a valid unit: {x}. Allowed units are: {default_unit}, {"

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/56e38aa2e5a0a348. Report an issue: GitHub.