multica-ai/multica · error

value %q is not a valid bool (expected true or false)

Error message

value %q is not a valid bool (expected true or false)

What it means

Returned by `encodeIssuePropertyValue` when a checkbox-typed property receives a `--value` that is not exactly the string `true` or `false`. The check is strict string equality (no `1/0`, `yes/no`, or case variants).

Source

Thrown at server/cmd/multica/cmd_property.go:484

			}
			id, err := resolveOption(part)
			if err != nil {
				return nil, err
			}
			ids = append(ids, id)
		}
		if len(ids) == 0 {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("--value must list at least one option; valid options: %s", strings.Join(optionNames, ", "))
		}
		return json.Marshal(ids)
	case "number":
		if _, err := strconv.ParseFloat(raw, 64); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("value %q is not a valid number", raw)
		}
		return json.RawMessage(raw), nil
	case "checkbox":
		if raw != "true" && raw != "false" {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("value %q is not a valid bool (expected true or false)", raw)
		}
		return json.RawMessage(raw), nil
	default: // text, date, url — validated server-side
		return json.Marshal(raw)
	}
}

// formatIssuePropertyValue renders a stored value for humans: option ids
// become option names, everything else prints via formatMetadataValue.
func formatIssuePropertyValue(property propertyDTO, value any) string {
	optionName := func(id string) string {
		for _, opt := range property.Config.Options {
			if opt.ID == id {
				return opt.Name
			}
		}
		return id
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2c0912b6ec)

Solutions

1. Pass exactly `--value true` or `--value false` (lowercase).
2. Normalize upstream output in the script: `printf '%s' "$VAL" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'` and map 1/0, yes/no to true/false.
3. To clear a checkbox value entirely, use `issue property unset` rather than an empty string.

Example fix

# before
multica issue property set ISS-1 --name Blocked --value "True"
# error: value "True" is not a valid bool (expected true or false)

# after
VAL=$(printf '%s' "$VAL" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
multica issue property set ISS-1 --name Blocked --value "$VAL"

# bash: normalize boolean-ish inputs to exactly true/false
VAL=$(printf '%s' "$VAL" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
case "$VAL" in 1|yes|y|on) VAL=true;; 0|no|n|off) VAL=false;; esac
[ "$VAL" = true ] || [ "$VAL" = false ] || { echo 'bad bool' >&2; exit 1; }

func isStrictBool(raw string) bool { return raw == "true" || raw == "false" }

When it happens

Trigger: `--value True`, `--value 1`, `--value yes`, `--value on`, or `--value ""` on a property of type `checkbox`.

Common situations: Scripts emitting shell-style booleans (`0`/`1`) or capitalized `True` from Python/JSON tooling; assuming case-insensitive parsing.

Related errors

• %s must be 'true' or 'false' (got %q)
• invalid direction %q (want \"up\" or \"down\")
• --name is required
• --runtime-id is required
• --runtime-config must be valid JSON: %w

AI-assisted analysis of multica-ai/multica@2c0912b6ec (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/afcfdcd5d8f3bd18. Report an issue: GitHub.