stablyai/orca · error · Error

Repo path must be an absolute path

Error message

Repo path must be an absolute path

What it means

Thrown by validateNestedRepoScanRoot when a nested-repo scan is requested with a non-absolute path on the local host. The guard is skipped entirely when a connectionId (remote/SSH host) is supplied, because absolute-vs-relative is only meaningful for local filesystem scans. The check uses node's isAbsolute and rejects any path that is not rooted.

Source

Thrown at src/main/ipc/repos.ts:1022

    scanId: z.string().min(1).optional(),
    mode: z.literal('separate')
  })
])

function parseProjectGroupIpcArgs<T>(schema: z.ZodType<T>, value: unknown, errorCode: string): T {
  const result = schema.safeParse(value)
  if (result.success) {
    return result.data
  }
  throw new Error(errorCode)
}

function validateNestedRepoScanRoot(path: string, connectionId?: string): void {
  if (connectionId) {
    return
  }
  if (!isAbsolute(path)) {
    throw new Error('Repo path must be an absolute path')
  }
}

function rememberCompletedNestedRepoScan(
  scanId: string | undefined,
  context: { parentPath: string; connectionId?: string },
  scan: NestedRepoScanResult
): void {
  if (!scanId) {
    return
  }
  completedNestedRepoScans.set(scanId, {
    scan,
    parentPath: scan.selectedPath,
    connectionId: context.connectionId ?? null
  })
  while (completedNestedRepoScans.size > MAX_COMPLETED_NESTED_SCAN_RESULTS) {
    const oldestScanId = completedNestedRepoScans.keys().next().value

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

1. Resolve the path against an absolute base with path.resolve() (or path.join(root, relative)) before invoking the nested scan IPC.
2. If the input may contain '~', expand it via os.homedir() before resolving.
3. Ensure folder-workspace base directories are stored and forwarded in absolute form from the point they are first computed.
4. Add a renderer-side precondition that rejects relative paths with a user-facing message before the IPC round-trip.

Example fix

// before
startNestedRepoScan({ parentPath: relativePath })

// after
import { path } from '@tauri-apps/api' // or node path in preload bridge
const absolute = path.isAbsolute(relativePath)
  ? relativePath
  : path.resolve(workspaceRoot, relativePath)
startNestedRepoScan({ parentPath: absolute })

import { isAbsolute, resolve } from 'path'

function ensureAbsoluteScanRoot(path: string, workspaceRoot: string): string {
  if (isAbsolute(path)) return path
  const resolved = resolve(workspaceRoot, path)
  if (!isAbsolute(resolved)) {
    throw new Error('Nested scan root could not be resolved to an absolute path')
  }
  return resolved
}

// before IPC:
const parentPath = ensureAbsoluteScanRoot(rawPath, workspaceRoot)
startNestedRepoScan({ parentPath /*, connectionId omitted for local */ })

function isAbsolutePathLocal(p: unknown): p is string {
  return typeof p === 'string' && p.length > 0 && (p.startsWith('/') || /^[A-Za-z]:[\\/]/.test(p))
}

try {
  await startNestedRepoScan({ parentPath })
} catch (e) {
  if (/absolute path/i.test((e as Error).message)) {
    showError('Select a folder inside the workspace root.')
  } else throw e
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the nested-repo-scan IPC with a relative or empty path while no connectionId is set. This happens when a renderer passes a workspace-relative path (e.g. "./subdir" or "repos/foo") instead of a fully resolved local path, or when a folder-workspace path was never resolved against the workspace root before the scan was triggered.

Common situations: A folder workspace (non-git) whose base path was not resolved to absolute before the scan; a renderer bug that forwards a tilde path like "~/code" unexpanded; passing a worktree-relative path for a local nested scan. Not seen for SSH/remote scans since connectionId short-circuits the check.

Related errors

• Selected file is not a markdown document.
• Cannot download to a directory
• Cannot download a directory
• content is required
• Unsupported host: ${args.hostId}

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/47ee9aa9cf8df4c6. Report an issue: GitHub.