multica-ai/multica · error

%s must be an absolute path

Error message

%s must be an absolute path

What it means

Thrown by resolveDiskUsageRoot in the multica CLI daemon command when the daemon-injected workspaces root environment variable (daemon.TaskWorkspacesRootEnv) is set to a relative path. For daemon-managed tasks the CLI refuses to guess the disk-usage tree root, because a profile-derived default could report a tree unrelated to the task; the value must be absolute.

Source

Thrown at server/cmd/multica/cmd_daemon.go:1863

	}
	return nil
}

// resolveDiskUsageRoot picks the directory to scan. A managed task reads the
// daemon-injected root only: ResolveWorkspacesRoot falls back to a $HOME- and
// profile-derived default, which for a task hosted by a named-profile daemon
// resolves to the default root and reports a tree the task has nothing to do
// with. Failing closed on a missing value keeps that guess out of the output.
func resolveDiskUsageRoot(taskContext bool, profile, rootOverride string) (string, error) {
	if !taskContext {
		return resolveWorkspacesRootForProfile(profile, rootOverride)
	}
	root := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv(daemon.TaskWorkspacesRootEnv))
	if root == "" {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("daemon-managed task requires the daemon-injected workspaces root in %s", daemon.TaskWorkspacesRootEnv)
	}
	if !filepath.IsAbs(root) {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("%s must be an absolute path", daemon.TaskWorkspacesRootEnv)
	}
	return filepath.Clean(root), nil
}

// diskUsageNeedsParentStatus reports whether this invocation renders per-task
// rows at all. The --by-workspace table has no STATUS column, so resolving
// statuses for it would spend a network round trip — and, against an
// unreachable server, a full timeout — on data nothing displays, turning a
// local diagnostic into a command that hangs offline. JSON output always
// carries the task array, so it still needs them even with --by-workspace.
func diskUsageNeedsParentStatus(byWorkspace bool, output string) bool {
	return !byWorkspace || output == "json"
}

// fillDiskUsageParentStatuses populates the report's STATUS column in place.
//
// This is best-effort and never fails the command: `disk-usage` is a local
// diagnostic that has to keep working when the machine is offline or logged

View on GitHub (pinned to 2c0912b6ec)

Solutions

1. Set the environment variable named by daemon.TaskWorkspacesRootEnv to an absolute path (e.g. /var/lib/multica/workspaces) and rerun the command
2. Check how the daemon was started: if you injected the variable yourself, use an absolute path derived from the workspace root
3. If running outside a daemon-managed context, unset the task-context flag/env so the CLI uses the profile root instead
4. Restart the daemon after fixing its configuration so it re-injects a correct absolute path

Example fix

# before
export MULTICA_TASK_WORKSPACES_ROOT=workspaces
multica daemon disk-usage

# after
export MULTICA_TASK_WORKSPACES_ROOT=/var/lib/multica/workspaces
multica daemon disk-usage

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"
	"path/filepath"
)

// validateTaskWorkspacesRoot checks the daemon-injected root before
// invoking any disk-usage command in task context.
func validateTaskWorkspacesRoot(envName string) error {
	root := os.Getenv(envName)
	if root == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("%s is not set", envName)
	}
	if !filepath.IsAbs(root) {
		return fmt.Errorf("%s must be an absolute path, got %q", envName, root)
	}
	return nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running a disk-usage command with taskContext=true (daemon-managed task) where the daemon sets daemon.TaskWorkspacesRootEnv to a relative path like "workspaces" instead of "/var/lib/multica/workspaces". Only reached after the empty-value check passes, so the env var exists but is not filepath.IsAbs.

Common situations: A custom or misconfigured daemon launcher, a wrapper script exporting the env var with a relative path, or a newer daemon version whose injection format changed. Also happens when someone hand-runs a task command and manually sets the env var.

Related errors

• agent execution context requires MULTICA_TOKEN to be a task-
• daemon-managed task requires a task-local Multica config roo
• %s is not available inside a daemon-managed task%s
• workspace_id is required: MULTICA_WORKSPACE_ID must be set b
• resolve profile %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of multica-ai/multica@2c0912b6ec (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2fb56af850787653. Report an issue: GitHub.