What causes "part %d: text type requires non-empty text field" in wavetermdev/waveterm?

Skip or drop empty text parts before calling the converter

part %d: text type requires non-empty text field

Error message

part %d: text type requires non-empty text field

What it means

When converting message parts, a text-type part with an empty Text field would produce a useless empty input_text content block, so the converter rejects it with this error naming the offending part index. OpenAI requires text content to be non-empty.

Source

Thrown at pkg/aiusechat/openai/openai-convertmessage.go:413

}

// 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) {
	if err := aiMsg.Validate(); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid AIMessage: %w", err)
	}

	var contentBlocks []OpenAIMessageContent
	imageCount := 0
	imageFailCount := 0

	for i, part := range aiMsg.Parts {
		switch part.Type {
		case uctypes.AIMessagePartTypeText:
			if part.Text == "" {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("part %d: text type requires non-empty text field", i)
			}
			contentBlocks = append(contentBlocks, OpenAIMessageContent{
				Type: "input_text",
				Text: part.Text,
			})

		case uctypes.AIMessagePartTypeFile:
			if strings.HasPrefix(part.MimeType, "image/") {
				imageCount++
			}
			block, err := convertFileAIMessagePart(part)
			if err != nil {
				if strings.HasPrefix(part.MimeType, "image/") {
					imageFailCount++
				}
				log.Printf("openai: %v", err)
				continue
			}

View on GitHub (pinned to a4447c1563)

Solutions

Skip or drop empty text parts before calling the converter
Replace empty text with placeholder content if the part is required
Add a pre-call check on aiMsg.Parts that removes parts where Type==text && Text==""

Example fix

// before
parts := []uctypes.AIMessagePart{{Type: uctypes.AIMessagePartTypeText, Text: ""}}
// after
parts := []uctypes.AIMessagePart{}
for _, p := range parts {
    if p.Type == uctypes.AIMessagePartTypeText && p.Text == "" { continue }
    parts = append(parts, p)
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

for i, p := range aiMsg.Parts {
    if p.Type == uctypes.AIMessagePartTypeText && p.Text == "" {
        return fmt.Errorf("part %d has empty text", i)
    }
}

Prevention

Trim and check text before creating text parts
Skip empty parts when assembling messages
Sanitize user input before building AIMessage

When it happens

Trigger: An AIMessage passed to ConvertAIMessageToOpenAIChatMessage contains a part with Type == uctypes.AIMessagePartTypeText and part.Text == "".

Common situations: Building user messages from form input without checking for empty strings; trimming that reduces text to ""; appending placeholder text parts meant to be filled in later.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of wavetermdev/waveterm@a4447c1563 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7ce950ac6919c29a. Report an issue: GitHub.