What causes "Expecting value > 0" in stride3d/stride?

Set PreferredIndent to a positive integer (commonly 2 or 4)

stride3d/stride · error · ArgumentOutOfRangeException

Expecting value > 0

Error message

Expecting value > 0

What it means

SerializerSettings.PreferredIndent rejects any value less than 1 with an ArgumentOutOfRangeException. The property controls the number of spaces used for YAML block indentation, which must be a positive integer for the emitter to produce valid nested output. It is a guard against misconfigured serializer settings.

Solutions

Set PreferredIndent to a positive integer (commonly 2 or 4)
Clamp or default the value when loading from configuration: `settings.PreferredIndent = Math.Max(1, configuredIndent)`

Example fix

// before
var settings = new SerializerSettings { PreferredIndent = indentFromConfig }; // 0
// after
var settings = new SerializerSettings { PreferredIndent = indentFromConfig > 0 ? indentFromConfig : 2 };

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (settings.PreferredIndent < 1) settings.PreferredIndent = 2;

Try / catch

try { settings.PreferredIndent = indent; } catch (ArgumentOutOfRangeException) { settings.PreferredIndent = 2; }

Prevention

Never assign indent values straight from config without clamping to >= 1
Default to 2 or 4, the common YAML conventions

When it happens

Trigger: Setting `new SerializerSettings().PreferredIndent = 0` (or any negative number) before constructing a Serializer with those settings.

Common situations: Reading the indent value from a config file or environment variable where it defaults to 0, or computing it from user input without clamping.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stride3d/stride@96fad776d2 (2026-09-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7234185ee2078d7c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sources/core/Stride.Core.Yaml/Serialization/SerializerSettings.cs:126

        public ChainedSerializer PreSerializer { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets a serializer that is executed after all other serializers, including <see cref="TagTypeSerializer"/>.
        /// </summary>
        public ChainedSerializer PostSerializer { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the preferred indentation. Default is 2.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value>The preferred indentation.</value>
        /// <exception cref="System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException">value;Expecting value &gt; 0</exception>
        public int PreferredIndent
        {
            get { return preferredIndent; }
            set
            {
                if (value < 1)
                    throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("value", "Expecting value > 0");
                preferredIndent = value;
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets a value indicating whether to emit anchor alias. Default is true.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value><c>true</c> to emit anchor alias; otherwise, <c>false</c>.</value>
        public bool EmitAlias { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets a value indicating whether to emit tags when serializing. Default is true.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value><c>true</c> to emit tags when serializing; otherwise, <c>false</c>.</value>
        public bool EmitTags { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets a value indicating whether the identation is trying to less

View on GitHub (pinned to 96fad776d2)