sipeed/picoclaw · error

invalid env assignment %q: key cannot be empty

Error message

invalid env assignment %q: key cannot be empty

What it means

Second guard of parseEnvAssignments (helpers.go:224-227): the entry contained '=' but the key side is empty after trimming. The parser deliberately rejects '=value' and ' =value' rather than storing a nameless variable.

Source

Thrown at cmd/picoclaw/internal/mcp/helpers.go:226

	}
	sort.Strings(names)
	return names
}

func parseEnvAssignments(values []string) (map[string]string, error) {
	if len(values) == 0 {
		return nil, nil
	}

	env := make(map[string]string, len(values))
	for _, entry := range values {
		key, value, found := strings.Cut(entry, "=")
		if !found {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid env assignment %q: expected KEY=value", entry)
		}
		key = strings.TrimSpace(key)
		if key == "" {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid env assignment %q: key cannot be empty", entry)
		}
		env[key] = value
	}

	return env, nil
}

func parseHeaderAssignments(values []string) (map[string]string, error) {
	if len(values) == 0 {
		return nil, nil
	}

	headers := make(map[string]string, len(values))
	for _, entry := range values {
		key, value, found := strings.Cut(entry, ":")
		if !found {
			key, value, found = strings.Cut(entry, "=")
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 49183d7e8d)

Solutions

1. Put the variable name before the equals sign: -e API_KEY=secret
2. Inspect the exact argument with printf '%s\n' "$PAIR" | cat -A to reveal leading whitespace

Example fix

# before
picoclaw mcp add s ./server -e "=secret"
# after
picoclaw mcp add s ./server -e "API_KEY=secret"

validate_env() {
  local pair=$1
  [[ $pair == *=* ]] || { echo "need KEY=value" >&2; return 1; }
  local key=${pair%%=*}
  [[ -n "${key//[[:space:]]/}" ]] || { echo "empty key in '$pair'" >&2; return 1; }
}
validate_env "$pair" && picoclaw mcp add "$name" "$target" -e "$pair"

When it happens

Trigger: `-e =foo`, `-e " =foo"`, or a paste that put the value before the equals sign.

Common situations: Copy-paste artifacts; retyping an assignment and swapping the sides; macros/snippets emitting a leading space.

Related errors

• invalid env assignment %q: expected KEY=value
• unsupported --type %q (only 'openai-compatible' is supported
• api base is required
• either --every or --cron must be specified
• invalid --host value: %w

AI-assisted analysis of sipeed/picoclaw@49183d7e8d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c81f6bf553f8374f. Report an issue: GitHub.