openai/openai-python · error · ValueError

Expected a non-empty value for `role_id` but received {role_

Error message

Expected a non-empty value for `role_id` but received {role_id!r}

What it means

The SDK guards required path parameters before making a request. Admin organization roles retrieve requires a non-empty `role_id`; an empty value would request /organization/roles/ (the list endpoint) instead of a specific role. This ValueError is raised locally with no network traffic.

Source

Thrown at src/openai/resources/admin/organization/roles.py:120

        extra_headers: Headers | None = None,
        extra_query: Query | None = None,
        extra_body: Body | None = None,
        timeout: float | httpx2.Timeout | None | NotGiven = not_given,
    ) -> Role:
        """
        Retrieves an organization role.

        Args:
          extra_headers: Send extra headers

          extra_query: Add additional query parameters to the request

          extra_body: Add additional JSON properties to the request

          timeout: Override the client-level default timeout for this request, in seconds
        """
        if not role_id:
            raise ValueError(f"Expected a non-empty value for `role_id` but received {role_id!r}")
        return self._get(
            path_template("/organization/roles/{role_id}", role_id=role_id),
            options=make_request_options(
                extra_headers=extra_headers,
                extra_query=extra_query,
                extra_body=extra_body,
                timeout=timeout,
                security={"admin_api_key_auth": True},
            ),
            cast_to=Role,
        )

    def update(
        self,
        role_id: str,
        *,
        description: Optional[str] | Omit = omit,
        permissions: Optional[SequenceNotStr[str]] | Omit = omit,

View on GitHub (pinned to 9917c6e28e)

Solutions

  1. Supply the actual role ID string (role_...)
  2. Verify the variable is populated before calling retrieve()
  3. Default or skip the call when the lookup source is empty

Example fix

// before
role = client.admin.organization.roles.retrieve(role_id=os.getenv("ROLE_ID"))
// after
role_id = os.environ["ROLE_ID"]
role = client.admin.organization.roles.retrieve(role_id=role_id)
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if not role_id:
    roles = client.admin.organization.roles.list()
    role_id = next(r.id for r in roles if r.name == ROLE_NAME)

Type guard

def is_valid_role_id(v) -> bool:
    return isinstance(v, str) and v.startswith("role_") and len(v) > 5

Try / catch

try:
    role = client.admin.organization.roles.retrieve(role_id=role_id)
except ValueError as e:
    if "role_id" in str(e):
        role_id = resolve_role_by_name()
    else:
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling client.admin.organization.roles.retrieve(role_id='') or role_id=None, typically from an unset config value or empty lookup result.

Common situations: Role ID stored in config/env and missing; chaining retrieve after a search that returned no matches.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of openai/openai-python@9917c6e28e (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e54d2f4867f36aa6. Report an issue: GitHub.