sipeed/picoclaw · error

$EDITOR is empty

Error message

$EDITOR is empty

What it means

After a successful shlex split, edit.go:37-39 requires at least one token. A non-empty EDITOR can still lex to zero words with google/shlex — most realistically when the value begins with # (a comment) or reduces to nothing after lexing. This is a narrower sibling of the '$EDITOR is not set' check.

Source

Thrown at cmd/picoclaw/internal/mcp/edit.go:38

			editor := strings.TrimSpace(os.Getenv("EDITOR"))
			if editor == "" {
				return fmt.Errorf("$EDITOR is not set")
			}

			cfg, err := loadConfig()
			if err != nil {
				return err
			}
			if err = saveValidatedConfig(cfg); err != nil {
				return err
			}

			editorArgs, err := shlex.Split(editor)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to parse $EDITOR: %w", err)
			}
			if len(editorArgs) == 0 {
				return fmt.Errorf("$EDITOR is empty")
			}

			editorArgs = append(editorArgs, internal.GetConfigPath())
			process := editorCommand(editorArgs[0], editorArgs[1:]...)
			process.Stdin = cmd.InOrStdin()
			process.Stdout = cmd.OutOrStdout()
			process.Stderr = cmd.ErrOrStderr()

			if err := process.Run(); err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to start editor: %w", err)
			}

			return nil
		},
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 49183d7e8d)

Solutions

1. Set EDITOR to a bare command name (vim, nano, code)
2. Print and inspect the raw value: printf '%s\n' "$EDITOR" | cat -A, then remove stray characters

Example fix

# before
export EDITOR='#vi'
# after
export EDITOR=vi

import "github.com/google/shlex"

words, err := shlex.Split(editor)
if err != nil || len(words) == 0 {
	return fmt.Errorf("EDITOR %q does not name an editor command", editor)
}

When it happens

Trigger: EDITOR='#vi' where the leading # comments out the whole word; a value consisting only of characters the lexer discards.

Common situations: A copy-pasted config line that kept a leading comment marker; accidental garbage in the environment variable.

Related errors

• failed to parse $EDITOR: %w
• $EDITOR is not set
• failed to start editor: %w
• failed to load config: %w
• reset failed: %w

AI-assisted analysis of sipeed/picoclaw@49183d7e8d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cca355ab584a6cfd. Report an issue: GitHub.