quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalStateException

You have to specify a description. This is what the user wil

Error message

You have to specify a description. This is what the user will see in the console menu

What it means

AssistantConsoleBuildItem.Builder.build() requires a non-blank description; if description is null or blank it throws this IllegalStateException. The description is what the user sees next to the hotkey in the assistant console menu.

Source

Thrown at extensions/assistant/deployment-spi/src/main/java/io/quarkus/assistant/deployment/spi/AssistantConsoleBuildItem.java:121

        }

        public Builder variables(Map<String, String> variables) {
            this.variables = variables;
            return this;
        }

        public Builder function(Function<Assistant, CompletionStage<?>> function) {
            this.function = Optional.of(function);
            return this;
        }

        public AssistantConsoleBuildItem build() {
            if (key == Character.MIN_VALUE) {
                throw new IllegalStateException(
                        "You have to specify a key. This is the key the user will press to get to your function");
            }
            if (description == null || description.isBlank()) {
                throw new IllegalStateException(
                        "You have to specify a description. This is what the user will see in the console menu");
            }
            if (userMessage == null && !function.isPresent()) {
                throw new IllegalStateException(
                        "You have to specify userMessage that will be send to AI, or implement your own using the function");
            }

            return new AssistantConsoleBuildItem(this);
        }
    }

    public ConsoleCommand getConsoleCommand() {
        return consoleCommand;
    }

    public String getDescription() {
        return consoleCommand != null ? consoleCommand.getDescription() : description;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Call .description("...") with meaningful non-blank text before build()
2. If the description is dynamic, validate it is non-blank before constructing the build item

Example fix

// before
new AssistantConsoleBuildItem.Builder()
    .key('e')
    .build();
// after
new AssistantConsoleBuildItem.Builder()
    .key('e')
    .description("Explain this build failure")
    .build();

if (description == null || description.isBlank()) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("AssistantConsoleBuildItem requires a non-blank description");
}

try {
    AssistantConsoleBuildItem item = builder.build();
} catch (IllegalStateException e) {
    logger.error("Set description(...) on the AssistantConsoleBuildItem builder", e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Building an AssistantConsoleBuildItem without calling description(...) or with description("") / whitespace-only text.

Common situations: Extension authors adding console entries who set only the key and message; programmatic description construction yielding an empty string.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• You have to specify a key. This is the key the user will pre
• You have to specify userMessage that will be send to AI, or
• User message is required
• A generic type is not allowed here; try creating a subclass
• Build item class must be leaf (final) types: %s

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3c0ad17ccbff9692. Report an issue: GitHub.