ruvnet/ruflo · error · Error

Buffer too small to be a valid RVFA file

Error message

Buffer too small to be a valid RVFA file

What it means

Thrown by parseRvfaBinary when the input is smaller than the minimum RVFA framing (preamble + SHA256 footer). A buffer this short cannot structurally be an RVFA image.

Source

Thrown at v3/@claude-flow/cli/src/appliance/rvfa-signing.ts:170

      return sorted;
    }
    return val;
  });
}

/**
 * Parse an RVFA binary into its components without full validation.
 * Returns the header object, header JSON bytes, section data region, and footer.
 */
function parseRvfaBinary(buf: Buffer): {
  header: Record<string, unknown>;
  headerStart: number;
  headerEnd: number;
  sectionData: Buffer;
  footer: Buffer;
} {
  if (buf.length < PREAMBLE_SIZE + SHA256_SIZE) {
    throw new Error('Buffer too small to be a valid RVFA file');
  }

  const magic = buf.subarray(0, 4).toString('ascii');
  if (magic !== 'RVFA') {
    throw new Error(`Invalid RVFA magic: expected "RVFA", got "${magic}"`);
  }

  const headerLen = buf.readUInt32LE(8);
  const headerStart = PREAMBLE_SIZE;
  const headerEnd = headerStart + headerLen;

  if (headerEnd > buf.length - SHA256_SIZE) {
    throw new Error('Header length extends beyond buffer');
  }

  const headerJson = buf.subarray(headerStart, headerEnd).toString('utf-8');
  let header: Record<string, unknown>;
  try {

View on GitHub (pinned to 6b01dc5a68)

Solutions

1. Confirm the input is actually an RVFA image.
2. Stat the file and reject obviously small files before reading.
3. Re-fetch the file if its size is implausibly small.

Example fix

// before
parseRvfaBinary(await readFile(maybeBrokenPath));

// after
const buf = await readFile(maybeBrokenPath);
if (buf.length < PREAMBLE_SIZE + SHA256_SIZE) {
  throw new Error(`File too small (${buf.length} bytes) to be RVFA`);
}
parseRvfaBinary(buf);

const MIN_RVFA = PREAMBLE_SIZE + SHA256_SIZE; // e.g. 12 + 32
if (!Buffer.isBuffer(buf) || buf.length < MIN_RVFA) {
  throw new Error(`Not an RVFA file (only ${buf?.length ?? 0} bytes)`);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing an empty buffer, a few-byte stub, or a non-RVFA file (text, directory read as bytes) to the signing parser.

Common situations: Wrong file path resolving to a tiny artifact; a download that produced 0 bytes; reading a symlink target that is empty.

Related errors

• Invalid RVFA magic: expected "RVFA", got "${magic}"
• Header length extends beyond buffer
• Footer hash must be ${SHA256_SIZE} bytes, got ${footerHash.l
• unknown game "${key}". Known: ${Object.keys(GAMES).join(', '
• unknown strategy "${name}". Available: ${roster.map((r) => r

AI-assisted analysis of ruvnet/ruflo@6b01dc5a68 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/47dd913ce1c99619. Report an issue: GitHub.