kovidgoyal/kitty · warning · ValueError

Invalid URL

Error message

Invalid URL

What it means

open_url_parse is a func_with_args handler for the launch/open_url action in mouse/map mappings. urlparse is applied to the URL; if the result lacks a scheme or netloc, ValueError('Invalid URL') is raised — but the handler catches it, logs 'Ignoring invalid URL string: ...' and returns the partial URL anyway.

Source

Thrown at kitty/options/utils.py:161

        return func, parts
    return 'kitten', parts[1:]


@func_with_args('open_url')
def open_url_parse(func: str, rest: str) -> FuncArgsType:
    from urllib.parse import urlparse

    url = ''
    try:
        url = python_string(rest)
        tokens = urlparse(url)
        if not all(
            (
                tokens.scheme,
                tokens.netloc,
            )
        ):
            raise ValueError('Invalid URL')
    except Exception:
        log_error('Ignoring invalid URL string: ' + rest)
    return func, (url,)


@func_with_args('goto_tab')
def goto_tab_parse(func: str, rest: str) -> FuncArgsType:
    n = int(rest)
    if n < 0:
        n += 1  # goto_tab subtracts 1 from its argument, this maps both zero and -1 to previous tab for backwards compat.
    return func, (n,)


@func_with_args('detach_window')
def detach_window_parse(func: str, rest: str) -> FuncArgsType:
    if rest not in ('new', 'new-tab', 'new-tab-left', 'new-tab-right', 'ask', 'tab-prev', 'tab-left', 'tab-right'):
        log_error(f'Ignoring invalid detach_window argument: {rest}')
        rest = 'new'

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

1. Include a full URL with scheme and host, e.g. https://example.com
2. Check kitty's log (Ctrl+Shift+F1 / kitty.err) for 'Ignoring invalid URL string' and correct the offending map
3. Quoting the URL in the config avoids tokenization issues

Example fix

# before
mouse_map left click ungrabbed open_url example.com
# after
mouse_map left click ungrabbed open_url https://example.com

from urllib.parse import urlparse
u = urlparse(candidate)
if not (u.scheme and u.netloc):
    candidate = 'https://' + candidate  # normalize before use

def is_valid_url(v: str) -> bool:
    u = urlparse(v)
    return bool(u.scheme and u.netloc)

try:
    u = urlparse(v)
    assert u.scheme and u.netloc
except Exception:
    log.warning('ignoring invalid URL: %s', v)
    u = None

When it happens

Trigger: A config line like `mouse_map left click ungrabbed open_url foo` (no scheme/host), or a URL string that urlparse cannot decompose into scheme+netloc. The error is logged and the string is still passed to the handler.

Common situations: Hand-writing mouse_map/launch URL actions with a bare hostname or relative path; trailing characters after the URL; the error appears in kitty's error log while browsing despite 'working' configs.

Related errors

• Ignoring invalid mouse action: {val}
• Mouse button: {xbutton} not recognized, ignoring
• Mouse event type: {event} not recognized, ignoring
• Mouse modes: {modes} not recognized, ignoring
• This should be run as kitten broadcast

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/19e36e12485926bc. Report an issue: GitHub.