shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code · error · ValueError

Memory name cannot be empty

Error message

Memory name cannot be empty

What it means

Raised by write_memory_file() in s09_memory/code.py:151 when the memory record's name is empty after stripping whitespace. Every durable memory record must have a non-empty name because the name is slugified (memory_slug(name)) to produce the record's filename; an empty name would yield an empty or invalid filename. The check runs before any type or content validation and before the store directory is touched.

Source

Thrown at s09_memory/code.py:151

        if _normalized_memory_text(
            str(memory.get("description", ""))
        ) == normalized_description:
            return False
        if _normalized_memory_text(str(memory.get("body", ""))) == normalized_body:
            return False
    return True

def memory_document(name: str, mem_type: str, description: str, body: str) -> str:
    metadata = yaml.safe_dump(
        {"name": name, "description": description, "type": mem_type},
        sort_keys=False,
        allow_unicode=True,
    ).strip()
    return f"---\n{metadata}\n---\n\n{body.strip()}\n"

def write_memory_file(name: str, mem_type: str, description: str, body: str) -> Path:
    if not name.strip():
        raise ValueError("Memory name cannot be empty")
    if mem_type not in MEMORY_TYPES:
        raise ValueError(f"Unknown memory type: {mem_type}")
    if not description.strip() or not body.strip():
        raise ValueError("Memory description and body cannot be empty")

    MEMORY_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
    path = memory_path(f"{memory_slug(name)}.md")
    path.write_text(memory_document(name, mem_type, description, body))
    rebuild_memory_index()
    return path

def rebuild_memory_index() -> None:
    MEMORY_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
    lines = []
    for path in sorted(MEMORY_DIR.glob("*.md")):
        if path.name == MEMORY_INDEX.name:
            continue
        try:

View on GitHub (pinned to 985456f4ad)

Solutions

1. Check that the name is a non-empty string after strip() before calling write_memory_file().
2. If the name comes from LLM output, validate with validate_memory_record() first — it rejects empty names — or derive a fallback name from the description's first words.
3. Fix the upstream producer so it never emits an empty name field.

Example fix

# before
write_memory_file(record.get('name', ''), mem_type, description, body)

# after
name = (record.get('name') or '').strip()
if not name:
    raise ValueError('record missing a name')
write_memory_file(name, mem_type, description, body)

def has_memory_name(name) -> bool:
    return isinstance(name, str) and bool(name.strip())

def is_valid_memory_name(name) -> bool:
    return isinstance(name, str) and len(name.strip()) > 0

try:
    write_memory_file(name, mem_type, description, body)
except ValueError as e:
    if 'cannot be empty' in str(e):
        # fill a default or surface to caller
        name = fallback_name or 'unnamed-record'

When it happens

Trigger: Calling write_memory_file('', 'user', 'desc', 'body'), passing a name composed only of whitespace like ' ', or passing a programmatically derived name (e.g. a field extracted from LLM output) that is None/empty after strip. Note None fails too: name.strip() raises AttributeError, so empty strings and whitespace-only strings are the exact triggers.

Common situations: Consolidation or capture pipelines that build the name from optional fields (record.get('name', '')) without a presence check; UI forms submitted empty; LLM-generated record dicts where the name key was omitted or blank.

Related errors

• Memory description and body cannot be empty
• The memory index is not a memory record
• Unknown memory type: {mem_type}
• Task subject cannot be empty
• Bash command cannot be empty

AI-assisted analysis of shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code@985456f4ad (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f563316ed68c9931. Report an issue: GitHub.