invalid profile name %q: contains invalid character %q

Error message

invalid profile name %q: contains invalid character %q

What it means

Beyond control characters, ValidateProfileName rejects shell-problematic characters: whitespace, path separators, quotes, and metacharacters ($ ` # ! & | ; parentheses braces brackets < > ? * ~), keeping profile names safe in config keys and shell usage.

Source

Thrown at internal/core/config.go:174

}

// ValidateProfileName checks that a profile name is valid.
// Rejects empty names, whitespace, control characters, and shell-problematic characters,
// but allows Unicode letters (e.g. Chinese, Japanese) for localized profile names.
func ValidateProfileName(name string) error {
	if name == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("profile name cannot be empty")
	}
	if utf8.RuneCountInString(name) > 64 {
		return fmt.Errorf("profile name %q is too long (max 64 characters)", name)
	}
	for _, r := range name {
		if r <= 0x1F || r == 0x7F { // control characters
			return fmt.Errorf("invalid profile name %q: contains control characters", name)
		}
		switch r {
		case ' ', '\t', '/', '\\', '"', '\'', '`', '$', '#', '!', '&', '|', ';', '(', ')', '{', '}', '[', ']', '<', '>', '?', '*', '~':
			return fmt.Errorf("invalid profile name %q: contains invalid character %q", name, r)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

// CliConfig is the resolved single-app config used by downstream code.
type CliConfig struct {
	ProfileName         string
	AppID               string
	AppSecret           string
	Brand               LarkBrand
	DefaultAs           Identity // AsUser | AsBot | AsAuto | "" (from config file)
	UserOpenId          string
	UserName            string
	Lang                i18n.Lang
	SupportedIdentities uint8 `json:"-"` // bitflag: 1=user, 2=bot; set by credential provider
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 7fd6ef3c07)

Solutions

Remove the offending character — prefer letters, digits, '-', '_', '.'
Replace spaces with hyphens ("my-work")
Sanitize generated names with a replacement pass before validation

Example fix

// before
name := "my work/profile"
// after
name := strings.NewReplacer(" ", "-", "/", "-").Replace("my work/profile") // "my-work-profile"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

func safeProfileName(s string) bool {
    for _, r := range s {
        if strings.ContainsRune(" \t/\\\"'`$#!&|;(){}[]<>?*~", r) { return false }
    }
    return s != ""
}

Try / catch

if err := core.ValidateProfileName(name); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid character") {
        name = strings.Map(func(r rune) rune {
            if strings.ContainsRune(" \t/\\\"'`$#!&|;(){}[]<>?*~", r) { return '-' }
            return r
        }, name)
        return core.ValidateProfileName(name)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Use only [A-Za-z0-9._-] for profile names
Never use emails or paths as profile names
Run ValidateProfileName in CI for any script that generates profiles

When it happens

Trigger: A name containing any of ' ', \t, /, \\, quotes, backtick, $, #, !, &, |, ;, (), {}, [], <, >, ?, *, ~ is passed to ValidateProfileName.

Common situations: Using an email address as a profile name; a name with a space like "my work"; shell expansions embedded by double-quoted interpolation.

Understand the failure class

Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of larksuite/cli@7fd6ef3c07 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/34276381550f8afe. Report an issue: GitHub.