oraios/serena · error · ValueError

The ignored patterns could not be computed; please check the

Error message

The ignored patterns could not be computed; please check the log for errors and report here: https://github.com/oraios/serena/issues

What it means

Raised by the Project._ignored_patterns property (src/serena/project.py:208) when the lazily-computed ignored patterns list remains None after waiting on the background initialization event. Like _ignore_spec, this is a defensive guard against an unexpected failure of the background pattern computation.

Source

Thrown at src/serena/project.py:208

                log.info("Ignore spec is now available for project; proceeding")
        if self.__ignore_spec is None:
            raise ValueError(
                "The ignore spec could not be computed; please check the log for errors and report here: https://github.com/oraios/serena/issues"
            )
        return self.__ignore_spec

    @property
    def _ignored_patterns(self) -> list[str]:
        """
        :return: the list of ignored path patterns
        """
        if not self._ignore_spec_available.is_set():
            log.info("Waiting for ignored patterns to become available ...")
            self._ignore_spec_available.wait()
            if self.__ignored_patterns is not None:
                log.info("Ignored patterns are now available for project; proceeding")
        if self.__ignored_patterns is None:
            raise ValueError(
                "The ignored patterns could not be computed; please check the log for errors and report here: https://github.com/oraios/serena/issues"
            )
        return self.__ignored_patterns

    def _is_ignored_relative_path(self, relative_path: str | Path, ignore_non_source_files: bool = True) -> bool:
        """
        Determine whether a path should be ignored based on file type and ignore patterns.
        Returns False for non-existent paths since they cannot be matched by ignore patterns.

        :param relative_path: Relative path to check
        :param ignore_non_source_files: whether files that are not source files (according to the file masks
            determined by the project's programming language) shall be ignored

        :return: whether the path should be ignored
        """
        # special case, never ignore the project root itself
        # If the user ignores hidden files, "." might match against the corresponding PathSpec pattern.
        # The empty string also points to the project root and should never be ignored.

View on GitHub (pinned to 7fcbca7e62)

Solutions

1. Inspect Serena logs for the underlying exception during pattern computation
2. Fix invalid ignore configuration files in the project
3. Report to https://github.com/oraios/serena/issues if logs show no actionable cause

project._ignore_spec_available.wait(timeout=30)  # patterns share the init event

try:
    patterns = project._ignored_patterns
except ValueError as e:
    logging.error('Ignored patterns unavailable: %s', e)
    patterns = []

When it happens

Trigger: Accessing _ignored_patterns while the background computation crashed or failed to publish its result.

Common situations: Same as [102]: bad ignore config, library incompatibility, or a genuine Serena bug; typically accompanied by errors in the log.

Related errors

• The ignore spec could not be computed; please check the log
• Path {relative_path} is ignored
• This method must be overridden for each subclass
• Context file not found: {path.resolve()}
• Cannot use both fixed_tools and excluded_tools/included_opti

AI-assisted analysis of oraios/serena@7fcbca7e62 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5613de533fd9ad73. Report an issue: GitHub.