mem0ai/mem0 · error · ValueError

org_id must be set to create a project

Error message

org_id must be set to create a project

What it means

The synchronous project create() posts to /api/v1/orgs/organizations/{org_id}/projects/, which requires an org_id in the URL. If the client config has no org_id, it raises ValueError before making the request. This is the sync twin of the async guard at project.py:700.

Source

Thrown at mem0/client/project.py:376

        """
        Create a new project within the organization.

        Args:
            name: Name of the project to be created
            description: Optional description for the project

        Returns:
            Dictionary containing the created project details.

        Raises:
            ValidationError: If the input data is invalid.
            AuthenticationError: If authentication fails.
            RateLimitError: If rate limits are exceeded.
            NetworkError: If network connectivity issues occur.
            ValueError: If org_id is not set.
        """
        if not self.config.org_id:
            raise ValueError("org_id must be set to create a project")

        payload = {"name": name}
        if description is not None:
            payload["description"] = description

        response = self._client.post(
            f"/api/v1/orgs/organizations/{self.config.org_id}/projects/",
            json=payload,
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        capture_client_event(
            "client.project.create",
            self,
            {"name": name, "description": description, "sync_type": "sync"},
        )
        return response.json()

    @api_error_handler

View on GitHub (pinned to 001c235229)

Solutions

  1. Construct the client with org_id before calling projects.create()
  2. Verify the org_id value is a non-empty string (None or "" both fail)
  3. Fetch the org ID from the Mem0 dashboard and add it to your config/env

Example fix

# before
client = MemoryClient(api_key=API_KEY)
client.projects.create(name="demo")

# after
client = MemoryClient(api_key=API_KEY, org_id="my-org")
client.projects.create(name="demo")
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if not (org_id and org_id.strip()):
    raise ConfigError("projects.create requires a non-empty org_id")
client = MemoryClient(api_key=API_KEY, org_id=org_id)

Type guard

def has_org_id(client) -> bool:
    return bool(getattr(getattr(client, "config", None), "org_id", None))

Try / catch

try:
    client.projects.create(name=name)
except ValueError as e:
    if "org_id must be set to create" in str(e):
        raise ConfigError("configure org_id before provisioning projects") from e
    raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `client.projects.create(name=...)` (sync) on a client constructed without org_id. The check is `if not self.config.org_id`, so an empty string also triggers it.

Common situations: Onboarding scripts that try to create the first project before any org context is configured; org_id loaded from a settings file that silently returns None; mixing memory-scope and project-scope client usage in one app.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of mem0ai/mem0@001c235229 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f84ff552008261c4. Report an issue: GitHub.