What causes "Do not include symbols \ / : * ? " ' |" in siyuan-note/siyuan?

Remove or replace the forbidden characters (\ / : * ? " ' |) from the tag name before calling TagSnapshot

Do not include symbols \ / : * ? " ' < > |

Error message

Do not include symbols \ / : * ? " ' < > |

What it means

After the empty check, TagSnapshot validates the name with gulu.File.IsValidFilename; names containing filesystem-invalid symbols \ / : * ? " ' < > | are rejected with errors.New(Conf.Language(151)). This is because tags map to snapshot directory/file names on disk and in cloud storage, so OS-illegal characters would break the repo layout.

Solutions

Remove or replace the forbidden characters (\ / : * ? " ' < > |) from the tag name before calling TagSnapshot
Rely on util.RemoveInvalid then verify the result with gulu.File.IsValidFilename on the caller side to fail fast
Use letters, digits, spaces, hyphens and underscores, which pass filename validation on all platforms
If the message is Language 151, the repo key is fine — only the name needs fixing; no other state must change

Example fix

// before
name := "backup: 2024/05"
model.TagSnapshot(id, name) // fails: contains ':' and '/'
// after
name := "backup: 2024/05"
name = strings.Map(func(r rune) rune {
    if strings.ContainsRune(`\/:*?"'<>|`, r) { return '-' }
    return r
}, name)
model.TagSnapshot(id, name)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function isValidTagName(name) {
  return name.length > 0 && !/[\\/:*?"'<>|]/.test(name);
}
// call before TagSnapshot
if (!isValidTagName(input)) throw new Error('Do not include symbols \\ / : * ? " \' < > |');

Try / catch

try {
    await fetchPost('/api/repo/tagSnapshot', {id, name});
} catch (e) {
    if (e.msg.includes('Do not include symbols')) highlightInvalidCharsInInput();
}

Prevention

Filter or replace \ / : * ? " ' < > | in the input field as the user types
Reuse the kernel's rule (gulu.File.IsValidFilename semantics) in client-side validation
Prefer letters, digits, spaces, hyphens, underscores for tag names
Show the allowed-character rule next to the tag input to prevent the error entirely

When it happens

Trigger: Calling TagSnapshot with a name containing any of \ / : * ? " ' < > | that survives util.RemoveInvalid, so gulu.File.IsValidFilename fails and Language 151 is returned.

Common situations: Users typing tags like 'backup 2024/05' or using OS path separators; names derived from document titles that contain colons or quotes; automation passing raw filenames with Windows-illegal characters.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid id" errors: invalid identifier format — why libraries reject IDs before lookup, and how to fix them — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3709f691edd32cb. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/model/repository.go:1733

}

func TagSnapshot(id, name string) (err error) {
	assetDownloadSourceMu.RLock()
	defer assetDownloadSourceMu.RUnlock()
	if 1 > len(Conf.Repo.Key) {
		err = errors.New(Conf.Language(26))
		return
	}

	name = util.RemoveInvalid(name)
	name = strings.TrimSpace(name)
	if "" == name {
		err = errors.New(Conf.Language(142))
		return
	}

	if !gulu.File.IsValidFilename(name) {
		err = errors.New(Conf.Language(151))
		return
	}

	repo, err := newRepositoryWithAssetSourceLocked()
	if err != nil {
		return
	}

	index, err := repo.GetIndex(id)
	if err != nil {
		return
	}

	if err = repo.AddTag(index.ID, name); err != nil {
		msg := fmt.Sprintf("Add tag to data snapshot [%s] failed: %s", index.ID, err)
		util.PushStatusBar(msg)
		return
	}

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