mem0ai/mem0 · error · Error

Config is not a JSON object

Error message

Config is not a JSON object

What it means

Internal sentinel thrown while parsing ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json when the file parses as valid JSON but is not a plain object (null, array, number, string, boolean). It never surfaces raw: the surrounding catch rewraps it into the '[openclaw-mem0] Failed to parse ...' error, so users only see error 24. It exists to distinguish 'wrong shape' from 'syntax error' in the message.

Source

Thrown at integrations/openclaw/cli/config-file.ts:65

 * Returns {} only when the file doesn't exist (first-time setup).
 * Throws on parse errors to prevent writes from destroying existing config.
 */
function readFullConfig(): Record<string, unknown> {
  if (!exists(OPENCLAW_CONFIG_FILE)) {
    return {};
  }

  const text = readText(OPENCLAW_CONFIG_FILE);

  // Handle empty or whitespace-only files as first-time setup
  if (!text.trim()) {
    return {};
  }

  try {
    const parsed = JSON.parse(text);
    if (parsed === null || typeof parsed !== "object" || Array.isArray(parsed)) {
      throw new Error("Config is not a JSON object");
    }
    return parsed;
  } catch (err) {
    // Fail closed: throw so writes don't proceed with empty config
    const msg = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
    throw new Error(
      `[openclaw-mem0] Failed to parse ${OPENCLAW_CONFIG_FILE}: ${msg}\n` +
        `Fix the JSON syntax error manually before running config commands.`,
    );
  }
}

/**
 * Write the full ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.
 *
 * Re-reads the file immediately before writing and deep-merges the
 * `plugins` section so that fields written by other processes (e.g.
 * OpenClaw gateway adding `installs`, `slots`) are not clobbered.

View on GitHub (pinned to 001c235229)

Solutions

1. Open ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json and make the top-level value a JSON object: { ... }.
2. If the file is unrecoverable, back it up and delete it — readText treats a missing/empty file as first-time setup and recreates {}.
3. Validate with `jq type ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json` — it must print 'object'.

Example fix

// before ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
[
  { "mode": "platform" }
]

// after
{
  "plugins": {
    "openclaw-mem0": { "mode": "platform" }
  }
}

const parsed = JSON.parse(text);
if (parsed === null || typeof parsed !== 'object' || Array.isArray(parsed)) {
  // reject before use
}

function isJsonObject(v: unknown): v is Record<string, unknown> {
  return typeof v === 'object' && v !== null && !Array.isArray(v);
}

When it happens

Trigger: The config file containing a JSON array at top level (e.g. []), a bare string, a number, or literal null. The empty-file case is handled earlier (returns {} for first-time setup), so this only fires on non-empty, syntactically valid, non-object JSON.

Common situations: User edited openclaw.json and replaced the object with an array of settings; another tool wrote a JSON scalar to the file; hand-crafting config from a snippet that was itself a list.

Related errors

• [openclaw-mem0] Failed to parse ${OPENCLAW_CONFIG_FILE}: ${m
• Unknown LLM provider: ${providerId}
• Unknown embedder provider: ${providerId}
• ${label} has unknown keys: ${unknown.join(", ")}
• openclaw-mem0 config required

AI-assisted analysis of mem0ai/mem0@001c235229 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ac51a88a7de54e0a. Report an issue: GitHub.