t8y2/dbx · error · ValueError

{name} must be a boolean

Error message

{name} must be a boolean

What it means

env_bool parses an environment variable as a boolean but throws ValueError when the value is not one of the accepted truthy/falsy tokens (1/true/yes/on or 0/false/no/off, case-insensitive). The library fails fast rather than guessing a value for boolean flags.

Source

Thrown at agents/drivers/argo-go/bench/agent_compare.py:660

def env_float(name: str, fallback: float) -> float:
    value = float(env_default(name, str(fallback)))
    if value <= 0:
        raise ValueError(f"{name} must be positive")
    return value


def env_bool(name: str, fallback: bool) -> bool:
    raw = os.getenv(name)
    if raw is None or raw == "":
        return fallback
    normalized = raw.strip().lower()
    if normalized in {"1", "true", "yes", "on"}:
        return True
    if normalized in {"0", "false", "no", "off"}:
        return False
    raise ValueError(f"{name} must be a boolean")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

View on GitHub (pinned to c0390bff16)

Solutions

1. Change the variable to one of: 1, true, yes, on, 0, false, no, off (any case)
2. Or unset the variable entirely so the fallback is used
3. Grep shell profiles/CI config for the variable name and normalize the value

Example fix

// before
export BENCH_TLS=enabled
// after
export BENCH_TLS=true

def validate_bool_env(name: str) -> bool:
    raw = (os.getenv(name) or "").strip().lower()
    if raw in {"1", "true", "yes", "on"}:
        return True
    if raw in {"0", "false", "no", "off", ""}:
        return False
    raise SystemExit(f"{name}={raw!r} must be one of 1/true/yes/on or 0/false/no/off")

validate_bool_env("BENCH_TLS")

def is_bool_token(raw: str | None) -> bool:
    return (raw or "").strip().lower() in {"1", "true", "yes", "on", "0", "false", "no", "off"}

try:
    params = connection_params()
except ValueError as exc:
    if "must be a boolean" in str(exc):
        sys.exit(f"fix the boolean env var: {exc}")
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Setting a boolean env var consumed by connection_params to an unrecognized string, e.g. BENCH_TLS=maybe or BENCH_TLS=enabled, then invoking connection_params.

Common situations: Typing 'True ' with stray whitespace is handled, but values like 'y', 'enabled', 'ja', or a translated word are not; copy-pasted config from another tool with different boolean conventions.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is not a valid" / "Invalid ... value" environment variable errors: how libraries validate env vars and what to do when they reject yours — this error's family across 48 libraries.

Related errors

• BENCH_CANDIDATES selected no candidates
• {name} is required
• {path}
• {name} must be positive
• {name} must be a boolean

AI-assisted analysis of t8y2/dbx@c0390bff16 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1010069afd758c73. Report an issue: GitHub.