notion.database_id must not be empty when notion.enabled = t

Error message

notion.database_id must not be empty when notion.enabled = true

What it means

Thrown by the whole-config validator (Config::validate) in zeroclaw-config when the [notion] section has enabled = true but database_id is empty after trimming. The Notion integration needs to know which database to poll, so an enabled integration without a target is treated as a configuration defect, not a runtime warning. It aborts config load before any Notion API call is made. Note that the same block also enforces poll_interval_secs > 0 via a typed validation_bail, so fix both when editing.

Source

Thrown at crates/zeroclaw-config/src/schema.rs:22011

                match reqwest::Url::parse(&reg.url) {
                    Ok(u) if matches!(u.scheme(), "http" | "https" | "file") => {}
                    Ok(u) => anyhow::bail!(
                        "skills.extra_registries[{}].url scheme '{}' is unsupported (use http, https, or file)",
                        reg.name,
                        u.scheme()
                    ),
                    Err(e) => anyhow::bail!(
                        "skills.extra_registries[{}].url is not a valid URL: {e}",
                        reg.name
                    ),
                }
            }
        }

        // Notion
        if self.notion.enabled {
            if self.notion.database_id.trim().is_empty() {
                anyhow::bail!("notion.database_id must not be empty when notion.enabled = true");
            }
            if self.notion.poll_interval_secs == 0 {
                validation_bail!(
                    InvalidNumericRange,
                    "notion.poll_interval_secs",
                    "notion.poll_interval_secs must be greater than 0"
                );
            }
            if self.notion.max_concurrent == 0 {
                validation_bail!(
                    InvalidNumericRange,
                    "notion.max_concurrent",
                    "notion.max_concurrent must be greater than 0"
                );
            }
            if self.notion.status_property.trim().is_empty() {
                validation_bail!(
                    RequiredFieldEmpty,

View on GitHub (pinned to 88bb9c8533)

Solutions

Set notion.database_id to the 32-character Notion database id (from the database URL or via the Notion API integration page)
Or set notion.enabled = false if the integration is not intended to run
Ensure the value has no surrounding quotes-with-spaces; it is trimmed but must be non-empty
Also set notion.poll_interval_secs to a value > 0 to clear the adjacent check in the same validation block

Example fix

# before
[notion]
enabled = true
# database_id missing

# after
[notion]
enabled = true
database_id = "a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4"
poll_interval_secs = 300

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn notion_config_ok(n: &NotionConfig) -> bool {
    !n.enabled || (!n.database_id.trim().is_empty() && n.poll_interval_secs > 0)
}
// call before config load/save:
assert!(notion_config_ok(&cfg.notion), "fix [notion] before enabling");

Try / catch

match cfg.validate() {
    Ok(()) => { /* proceed */ }
    Err(e) if e.to_string().starts_with("notion.database_id") => {
        eprintln!("Notion enabled without database_id — set it or disable notion");
        return;
    }
    Err(e) => return Err(e),
}

Prevention

Treat enabled=true as a commitment: never flip it without also setting database_id
Keep a validated example config in the repo and CI that runs cfg.validate() on every config change
When templating configs, fail the template render if notion.enabled is true but the id placeholder was not substituted

When it happens

Trigger: Setting `notion.enabled = true` in config.toml while `notion.database_id` is absent, set to "", or set to a whitespace-only string; copying a template config that ships with an empty [notion] block and flipping only the enabled flag; disabling then re-enabling Notion after the database id was removed.

Common situations: User enables the Notion channel before creating/copying the database; config generated by a script or UI that writes enabled but not the id; migration from an older config where database_id lived under a different key and was dropped.

Understand the failure class

Background: Config validation failed: what "invalid value for {key}" and settings-rejection errors mean across 19 open-source libraries — this error's family across 19 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw@88bb9c8533 (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0e495c24a5b1fcfb. Report an issue: GitHub.