t8y2/dbx · error · Error

Invalid ${name}: ${error.message}

Error message

Invalid ${name}: ${error.message}

What it means

parseJsonEnv reads an environment variable expected to contain JSON and throws Error('Invalid <name>: <error.message>') when JSON.parse fails. The bridge uses it for MCP_ARGS_ENV and ENABLED_TOOLS_ENV, so malformed JSON in those variables aborts startup.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbx-core/assets/pi-mcp-bridge.mjs:17

import { spawn } from "node:child_process";
import { writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
import { createInterface } from "node:readline";

const MCP_PROGRAM_ENV = "DBX_PI_MCP_PROGRAM";
const MCP_ARGS_ENV = "DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS";
const ENABLED_TOOLS_ENV = "DBX_PI_ENABLED_TOOLS";
const READY_FILE_ENV = "DBX_PI_BRIDGE_READY_FILE";
const REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS = 30_000;

function parseJsonEnv(name, fallback) {
  const value = process.env[name];
  if (!value) return fallback;
  try {
    return JSON.parse(value);
  } catch (error) {
    throw new Error(`Invalid ${name}: ${error.message}`);
  }
}

function textFromContent(content) {
  return (content ?? [])
    .filter((item) => item?.type === "text" && typeof item.text === "string")
    .map((item) => item.text)
    .join("\n");
}

function piContent(content) {
  const result = [];
  for (const item of content ?? []) {
    if (item?.type === "text" && typeof item.text === "string") {
      result.push({ type: "text", text: item.text });
    } else if (
      item?.type === "image" &&
      typeof item.data === "string" &&

View on GitHub (pinned to c0390bff16)

Solutions

1. Set the env var to valid JSON, e.g. DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS='["-m","server"]' with double quotes inside
2. Validate with `echo "$VAR" | python3 -m json.tool` or JSON.parse in node before launch
3. Prefer a config file/generated env over hand-written shell escaping; check how your shell/systemd/compose passes quotes

Example fix

// before
export DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS=["-m","pi_server"]   # shell strips quotes -> invalid JSON
// after
export DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS='["-m","pi_server"]'

function assertJsonEnv(name) {
  const v = process.env[name];
  if (v) JSON.parse(v); // throws early with clear context
}
assertJsonEnv('DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS');
assertJsonEnv('DBX_PI_MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS');

function isJsonObjectString(v) {
  try { const p = JSON.parse(v); return p !== null && typeof p === 'object'; }
  catch { return false; }
}

try {
  const args = parseJsonEnv('DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS', []);
} catch (e) {
  console.error('Env DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS is not valid JSON:', e.message);
  process.exit(1);
}

When it happens

Trigger: DBX_PI_MCP_ARGS or DBX_PI_MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS (the configured env names) contain non-JSON text, single quotes instead of double quotes, trailing commas, or are truncated by a size limit.

Common situations: Hand-editing env vars in shell (shell quoting strips double quotes); container orchestration templates interpolating incorrectly; log-serialization truncating long values.

Related errors

• DBX Pi MCP bridge configuration is incomplete
• JSON registration has no endpoint
• DBX_PUBLIC_BASE_PATH contains invalid characters
• Agent runtime thread limits must be positive
• H2 JDBC driver rejected URL: " + buildJdbcUrl(params)

AI-assisted analysis of t8y2/dbx@c0390bff16 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/71bf1fe5aca58de3. Report an issue: GitHub.