langchain-ai/deepagents · error · ValueError

Invalid approval mode: {mode!r}

Error message

Invalid approval mode: {mode!r}

What it means

When `mode` is given to `approval_mode_payload`, it is converted with `ApprovalMode(mode)`. Any value that is not a valid ApprovalMode (or is of an unusable type) raises TypeError/ValueError, which is re-raised as this ValueError naming the offending value.

Source

Thrown at libs/code/deepagents_code/approval_mode.py:157

            API. `True` maps to unrestricted `yolo`, and `False` maps to `manual`.

    Returns:
        JSON-serializable store value.

    Raises:
        ValueError: If neither or both inputs are supplied, or `mode` is invalid.
    """
    if (mode is None) == (auto_approve is None):
        msg = "Provide exactly one of mode or auto_approve"
        raise ValueError(msg)
    if auto_approve is not None:
        resolved = ApprovalMode.YOLO if auto_approve else ApprovalMode.MANUAL
    else:
        try:
            resolved = ApprovalMode(mode)
        except (TypeError, ValueError) as exc:
            msg = f"Invalid approval mode: {mode!r}"
            raise ValueError(msg) from exc
    return {"mode": resolved.value}


def _item_value(item: object) -> object:
    """Extract a store item's value.

    Args:
        item: SDK or runtime store-item shape.

    Returns:
        The stored value, or `None` when the shape is unrecognized.
    """
    if isinstance(item, Mapping):
        return item.get("value")
    return getattr(item, "value", None)


def _approval_mode_from_item(item: object) -> ApprovalMode | None:

View on GitHub (pinned to a1af029e6e)

Solutions

1. Use an ApprovalMode member value exactly, e.g. "yolo" or "manual"
2. Validate first: `mode in {m.value for m in ApprovalMode}` before calling
3. Parse config through ApprovalMode(mode) at load time with a clear fallback
4. Accept case-insensitively by normalizing: mode = mode.strip().lower()

Example fix

// before
approval_mode_payload(mode="YOLO")
// after
approval_mode_payload(mode=ApprovalMode.YOLO.value)

allowed = {m.value for m in ApprovalMode}
if mode not in allowed:
    raise ValueError(f"mode must be one of {sorted(allowed)}, got {mode!r}")

def is_approval_mode(value: object) -> bool:
    try:
        ApprovalMode(value)
        return True
    except (TypeError, ValueError):
        return False

try:
    payload = approval_mode_payload(mode=config_mode)
except ValueError as exc:
    logger.error("bad approval mode in config: %s", exc)
    payload = approval_mode_payload(mode=ApprovalMode.MANUAL.value)

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `approval_mode_payload(mode="Yolo")` (wrong case), `mode="auto"` (nonexistent), or `mode=1` where no enum member matches — typically from unvalidated config or UI input.

Common situations: Config files with hand-written mode strings; switching versions where allowed values changed; comparing against lowercase strings instead of the enum.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• Provide exactly one of mode or auto_approve
• External event bypass must be a valid bypass tier: {exc}
• Invalid recent startup mode: {mode!r}
• Invalid sort_order {sort_order!r}; expected 'updated_at' or
• Invalid scope {scope!r}; expected 'cwd' or 'all'

AI-assisted analysis of langchain-ai/deepagents@a1af029e6e (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2ccc3c458593c278. Report an issue: GitHub.