langchain-ai/deepagents · error · ValueError

Provide exactly one of mode or auto_approve

Error message

Provide exactly one of mode or auto_approve

What it means

`approval_mode_payload` converts either an explicit `ApprovalMode` value or an `auto_approve` boolean into a payload dict. Exactly one of the two may be supplied; passing neither or both is ambiguous and raises this ValueError.

Source

Thrown at libs/code/deepagents_code/approval_mode.py:149

    mode: ApprovalMode | str | None = None,
    auto_approve: bool | None = None,
) -> ApprovalModePayload:
    """Return the stored approval-mode payload.

    Args:
        mode: Explicit approval mode.
        auto_approve: Compatibility input for callers using the previous Boolean
            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:

View on GitHub (pinned to a1af029e6e)

Solutions

1. Pass only `mode` (preferred): approval_mode_payload(mode="yolo")
2. Or pass only the boolean: approval_mode_payload(auto_approve=True)
3. Guard the call site: if mode is not None: ... elif auto_approve is not None: ...

Example fix

// before
approval_mode_payload(mode="manual", auto_approve=True)
// after
approval_mode_payload(mode="manual")

supplied = [arg for arg in (mode, auto_approve) if arg is not None]
if len(supplied) != 1:
    raise ValueError("Provide exactly one of mode or auto_approve")

def has_exactly_one(mode: str | None, auto_approve: bool | None) -> bool:
    return (mode is None) != (auto_approve is None)

try:
    payload = approval_mode_payload(mode=mode)
except ValueError as exc:
    logger.error("approval payload error: %s", exc)

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `approval_mode_payload()` with no arguments, or with both `mode="yolo"` and `auto_approve=True`; usually from a caller that conditionally sets one flag but doesn't mutually exclude them.

Common situations: Settings screens that write both a boolean auto-approve toggle and a mode dropdown; refactors that added `mode` without removing `auto_approve`.

Related errors

• Invalid approval mode: {mode!r}
• a provider already serves rank {provider.rank}
• Approval-mode Store writer is unavailable
• Manual approval mode could not be persisted; graph execution
• Manual mode callback is unavailable

AI-assisted analysis of langchain-ai/deepagents@a1af029e6e (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7dd159c700dda0e8. Report an issue: GitHub.