paperclipai/paperclip · error

exe.dev did not return VM metadata for ${vmName}.

Error message

exe.dev did not return VM metadata for ${vmName}.

What it means

Response validation in createVm: the exe.dev API accepted the create command, but when the VM list was re-queried no record with matching name/sshDest was found for the requested vmName. The provider's create is asynchronous/lossy, so the driver treats a create that produced no retrievable VM metadata as a failure.

Source

Thrown at packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/exe-dev/src/plugin.ts:458

    if (parsed?.name === vmName || parsed?.sshDest === vmName) {
      return parsed;
    }
  }
  return null;
}

async function createVm(
  config: ExeDevDriverConfig,
  params: PluginEnvironmentAcquireLeaseParams | PluginEnvironmentProbeParams,
): Promise<ExeDevVmRecord> {
  const vmName = "runId" in params
    ? buildVmName(config, params)
    : `${config.namePrefix}-probe-${randomUUID().slice(0, 8)}`.slice(0, 63);
  const command = buildCreateCommand(config, vmName);
  const response = await runLifecycleCommand(config, command, redactCreateCommand(command, config));
  const created = parseVmRecord(response) ?? await lookupVm(config, vmName);
  if (!created) {
    throw new Error(`exe.dev did not return VM metadata for ${vmName}.`);
  }
  return created;
}

async function deleteVm(config: ExeDevDriverConfig, vmName: string): Promise<void> {
  await runLifecycleCommand(config, `rm --json ${shellQuote(vmName)}`);
}

function buildSshDestination(config: ExeDevDriverConfig, vm: ExeDevVmRecord): string {
  return config.sshUser ? `${config.sshUser}@${vm.sshDest}` : vm.sshDest;
}

function buildSshArgs(
  config: ExeDevDriverConfig,
  vm: ExeDevVmRecord,
  remoteCommand: string,
  sshIdentityFile: string | null,
): string[] {

View on GitHub (pinned to a7e689b3c3)

Solutions

1. Retry VM creation/info; verify the VM name and that the exe.dev API is healthy.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/exe-dev/src/plugin.ts:456 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@a7e689b3c3 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d77824c28840d298. Report an issue: GitHub.