openai/openai-python · error · ValueError

Expected a non-empty value for `user_id` but received {user_

Error message

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

What it means

The Admin API group-users retrieve method requires `user_id` as a path parameter. The SDK validates it is non-empty before building the request URL and raises ValueError if it is None, empty, or whitespace. This prevents malformed requests to /organization/groups/{group_id}/users/.

Source

Thrown at src/openai/resources/admin/organization/groups/users.py:114

        extra_body: Body | None = None,
        timeout: float | httpx2.Timeout | None | NotGiven = not_given,
    ) -> UserRetrieveResponse:
        """
        Retrieves a user in a group.

        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 group_id:
            raise ValueError(f"Expected a non-empty value for `group_id` but received {group_id!r}")
        if not user_id:
            raise ValueError(f"Expected a non-empty value for `user_id` but received {user_id!r}")
        return self._get(
            path_template("/organization/groups/{group_id}/users/{user_id}", group_id=group_id, user_id=user_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=UserRetrieveResponse,
        )

    def list(
        self,
        group_id: str,
        *,
        after: str | Omit = omit,
        limit: int | Omit = omit,

View on GitHub (pinned to 9917c6e28e)

Solutions

  1. Pass the string user ID (e.g. 'user-abc123'), not a User object
  2. If you have a user object, use its .id attribute
  3. Check the value is set before the call: if not user_id: raise ...
  4. Add a quick repr() log of the argument when debugging

Example fix

# before
client.admin.organization.groups.users.retrieve(group_id=group_id, user_id=user)

# after
client.admin.organization.groups.users.retrieve(group_id=group_id, user_id=user.id)
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if not isinstance(user_id, str) or not user_id.strip():
    raise ValueError(f"user_id must be a non-empty string, got {user_id!r}")

Type guard

def is_valid_user_id(value: object) -> bool:
    return isinstance(value, str) and bool(value.strip())

Try / catch

try:
    user = client.admin.organization.groups.users.retrieve(group_id=group_id, user_id=user_id)
except ValueError:
    logger.exception("missing user_id; check the caller passed user.id")
    raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling client.admin.organization.groups.users.retrieve(group_id='group_123', user_id='') or user_id=None on the sync resource at src/openai/resources/admin/organization/groups/users.py:114.

Common situations: Passing a user object instead of its id attribute (user instead of user.id); a loop where a user record lacks an ID; copying example code without filling in the placeholder; typo'd keyword argument silently leaving user_id unset.

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/c05408af63d2b5fc. Report an issue: GitHub.