What causes "Invalid sandbox environment variable key: ${key}" in paperclipai/paperclip?

Use a valid environment variable key (letters, digits, underscore, not starting with a digit).

Invalid sandbox environment variable key

Error message

Invalid sandbox environment variable key: ${key}

What it means

Env-key sanitization in buildLoginShellScript for the Daytona driver: an environment variable key failed isValidShellEnvKey, which rejects keys that are not valid identifiers for the generated login-shell export line. This blocks shell metacharacter injection through env var names before the command string is assembled.

Solutions

Use a valid environment variable key (letters, digits, underscore, not starting with a digit).

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/daytona/src/plugin.ts:826 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@3f1d897a7c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/65818980626ad75f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/daytona/src/plugin.ts:873

    if (arg === "submodule") {
      const next = args.slice(i + 1).find(a => !a.startsWith("-"));
      return next === "update";
    }
    return false;
  }
  return false;
}

// Build the one-shot exec command. Daytona's `executeCommand` runs the script
// in a non-login shell, so it does not source `/etc/profile` on its own. The
// Daytona reference image puts `node`, `claude`, and the other CLIs on the PATH
// through `/etc/profile.d/00-restore-env.sh`, which only `/etc/profile` sources.
// So the wrapper sources the login profiles itself; a non-login shell is then
// enough to resolve the CLIs. The wrapper no longer sources `nvm.sh`; the
// sandbox image supplies `node` on the PATH. See the sandbox runtime
// requirements document.
function buildLoginShellScript(input: {
  command: string;
  args: string[];
  cwd?: string;
  env?: Record<string, string>;
  stdinPath?: string;
}): string {
  const callerEnv = input.env ?? {};
  for (const key of Object.keys(callerEnv)) {
    if (!isValidShellEnvKey(key)) {
      throw new Error(`Invalid sandbox environment variable key: ${key}`);
    }
  }
  // Caller env takes priority over noninteractive git credential defaults
  const env = { ...NONINTERACTIVE_GIT_ENV, ...callerEnv };
  const envArgs = Object.entries(env)
    .filter((entry): entry is [string, string] => typeof entry[1] === "string")
    .map(([key, value]) => `${key}=${shellQuote(value)}`);
  const commandParts = [shellQuote(input.command), ...input.args.map(shellQuote)].join(" ");
  const redirectedCommand = input.stdinPath

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