odysseus-dev/odysseus · warning · HTTPException

Prompt is required for LLM/research tasks

Error message

Prompt is required for LLM/research tasks

What it means

Create-task validation: task_type 'llm' or 'research' requires a non-empty prompt field. These types execute an LLM prompt, so a blank prompt is rejected with HTTP 400 before any scheduling logic runs.

Source

Thrown at routes/task_routes.py:457

        if not target_id:
            return None
        if current_task_id and target_id == current_task_id:
            raise HTTPException(400, "Task cannot chain to itself")
        q = db.query(ScheduledTask).filter(ScheduledTask.id == target_id)
        if user:
            q = q.filter(ScheduledTask.owner == user)
        target = q.first()
        if not target:
            raise HTTPException(404, "Chained task not found")
        return target.id

    @router.post("")
    async def create_task(request: Request, req: TaskCreate):
        user = _owner(request)

        # Validate
        if req.task_type in ("llm", "research") and not req.prompt:
            raise HTTPException(400, "Prompt is required for LLM/research tasks")
        if req.task_type == "action" and not req.action:
            raise HTTPException(400, "Action name is required for action tasks")
        # Block shell-executing action types for non-admins. action_run_local
        # uses subprocess.run(shell=True) and ssh_command / run_script run
        # arbitrary commands.
        _require_admin_for_task_action(user, req.task_type, req.action)
        if req.trigger_type == "schedule" and not req.schedule:
            raise HTTPException(400, "Schedule is required for schedule-triggered tasks")
        if req.trigger_type == "schedule" and req.schedule == "cron" and not req.cron_expression:
            raise HTTPException(400, "Cron expression is required for cron schedule")
        if req.trigger_type == "schedule" and req.schedule == "cron" and req.cron_expression:
            try:
                from croniter import croniter
                croniter(req.cron_expression)
            except Exception:
                raise HTTPException(400, "Invalid cron expression")
        if req.trigger_type == "event" and not req.trigger_event:
            raise HTTPException(400, "Event name is required for event-triggered tasks")

View on GitHub (pinned to f9235ebbf1)

Solutions

1. Include a non-empty prompt in the request body for llm/research tasks.
2. Add client-side required-field validation on the prompt input before submit.
3. Check for field-name typos in the payload against the TaskCreate schema (it must be 'prompt').

Example fix

// before
await api.createTask({task_type: 'llm', trigger_type: 'event', trigger_event: 'x'});

// after
const prompt = promptInput.value.trim();
if (!prompt) return showError('Prompt is required');
await api.createTask({task_type: 'llm', prompt, trigger_type: 'event', trigger_event: 'x'});

function validateTaskCreate(p) {
  if ((p.task_type === 'llm' || p.task_type === 'research') && !(p.prompt ?? '').trim())
    throw new ValidationError('Prompt is required for LLM/research tasks');
  return p;
}

function isLlmLikeTask(t: unknown): t is {task_type: 'llm'|'research'} {
  return typeof t === 'object' && t !== null &&
    ['llm','research'].includes((t as any).task_type);
}

When it happens

Trigger: POST /api/tasks with {"task_type": "llm"} or {"task_type": "research"} and prompt null/empty/whitespace.

Common situations: Frontend sends the form before the user types a prompt; prompt field name mismatch (e.g. 'text' vs 'prompt'); API client defaulting prompt to empty string; importing tasks from JSON where the prompt key was dropped.

Related errors

• Task cannot chain to itself
• Action name is required for action tasks
• Schedule is required for schedule-triggered tasks
• Cron expression is required for cron schedule
• Invalid cron expression

AI-assisted analysis of odysseus-dev/odysseus@f9235ebbf1 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/acee04498d0660a8. Report an issue: GitHub.