What causes "directory listing part missing data" in wavetermdev/waveterm?

Populate part.Data with the directory listing serialized as JSON before sending

directory listing part missing data

Error message

directory listing part missing data

What it means

Validation error: a directory-listing file part in an OpenAI message conversion is missing its data payload (the serialized listing).

Source

Thrown at pkg/aiusechat/openai/openai-convertmessage.go:382

		}, nil

	case part.MimeType == "text/plain":
		textData, err := aiutil.ExtractTextData(part.Data, part.URL)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		formattedText := aiutil.FormatAttachedTextFile(part.FileName, textData)
		return &OpenAIMessageContent{
			Type: "input_text",
			Text: formattedText,
		}, nil
	case part.MimeType == "directory":
		var jsonContent string

		if len(part.Data) > 0 {
			jsonContent = string(part.Data)
		} else {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("directory listing part missing data")
		}

		formattedText := aiutil.FormatAttachedDirectoryListing(part.FileName, jsonContent)

		return &OpenAIMessageContent{
			Type: "input_text",
			Text: formattedText,
		}, nil

	default:
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("dropping file with unsupported mimetype '%s' (OpenAI supports images, PDFs, text/plain, and directories)", part.MimeType)
	}
}

// ConvertAIMessageToOpenAIChatMessage converts an AIMessage to OpenAIChatMessage
// These messages are ALWAYS role "user"
// Handles text parts, images, PDFs, and text/plain files
func ConvertAIMessageToOpenAIChatMessage(aiMsg uctypes.AIMessage) (*OpenAIChatMessage, error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to a4447c1563)

Solutions

Populate part.Data with the directory listing serialized as JSON before sending
Run your directory-listing generation (e.g. lsjson output) and marshal it into Data
Validate directory parts contain non-empty Data in a pre-send check

Example fix

// before
part := uctypes.AIMessagePart{Type: "file", MimeType: "directory", FileName: "project/src"}
// after
listing, _ := json.Marshal(dirEntries)
part := uctypes.AIMessagePart{Type: "file", MimeType: "directory", FileName: "project/src", Data: listing}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

func ensureDirectoryData(p uctypes.AIMessagePart) error {
    if p.MimeType == "directory" && len(p.Data) == 0 {
        return errors.New("directory listing part has no JSON data")
    }
    return nil
}

Type guard

func hasDirectoryData(p uctypes.AIMessagePart) bool {
    return p.MimeType == "directory" && len(p.Data) > 0
}

Prevention

Generate and marshal the directory listing into Data at attach time
Skip empty listings rather than attaching empty parts
Validate all parts before sending

When it happens

Trigger: Adding a directory part without generating the listing JSON into Data; the directory snapshot step was skipped or failed; part constructed from metadata only (FileName set, Data empty).

Common situations: Custom tooling that attaches directory context to chats but doesn't serialize the listing; races where the directory read produced no output; refactors that dropped the listing-generation step.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of wavetermdev/waveterm@a4447c1563 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/101a1f57fd4fc253. Report an issue: GitHub.