zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw · error

transcription.max_audio_bytes must be greater than zero

Error message

transcription.max_audio_bytes must be greater than zero

What it means

TranscriptionManager::new() rejects a TranscriptionConfig where max_audio_bytes is Some(0). Zero is treated as a misconfiguration, not as 'unlimited' — to have no global limit, the key must be absent (None). The check runs before any provider registration, so the manager is never constructed with this value.

Solutions

1. Remove the transcription.max_audio_bytes key entirely to disable the global limit
2. Or set it to the intended positive byte value, e.g. 26214400 (25 MB)

Example fix

# before
[transcription]
enabled = true
max_audio_bytes = 0

# after (no global limit)
[transcription]
enabled = true

// Validate before constructing the manager
fn transcription_config_ok(cfg: &TranscriptionConfig) -> bool {
    !matches!(cfg.max_audio_bytes, Some(0))
}

fn transcription_config_ok(cfg: &TranscriptionConfig) -> bool {
    !matches!(cfg.max_audio_bytes, Some(0))
}

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing TranscriptionManager::new(&config) with zeroclaw.toml containing transcription.max_audio_bytes = 0.

Common situations: A user writes max_audio_bytes = 0 intending 'no limit' or 'disabled'; a templating/env substitution produces 0 when the variable is unset; copying an example config that used 0 as a placeholder.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• matrix: `homeserver` is required
• Transcription is enabled but no transcription provider…
• Transcription is enabled but no transcription provider…
• Agent has no transcription_provider configured. Set `agent.
• agents. .model_provider = " " does not resolve to a…

AI-assisted analysis of zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw@88bb9c8533 (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9cd720f76f89f4f7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/zeroclaw-channels/src/transcription.rs:939

impl TranscriptionManager {
    /// Empty manager with no providers. Used as a base when only typed
    /// `[providers.transcription.<family>.<alias>]` config is present and
    /// there is no legacy `[transcription]` block to seed from.
    pub fn empty() -> Self {
        Self {
            transcription_providers: HashMap::new(),
            max_audio_bytes: None,
            agent_transcription_provider: String::new(),
        }
    }

    /// Build a `TranscriptionManager` from a `TranscriptionConfig`. The
    /// resolved agent alias starts empty; orchestrators that wire the
    /// manager to a specific agent should call
    /// `with_agent_transcription_provider` to set it.
    pub fn new(config: &TranscriptionConfig) -> Result<Self> {
        if matches!(config.max_audio_bytes, Some(0)) {
            bail!("transcription.max_audio_bytes must be greater than zero");
        }

        let mut transcription_providers: HashMap<String, Box<dyn TranscriptionProvider>> =
            HashMap::new();

        Self::register_legacy_providers(&mut transcription_providers, config);

        if config.enabled && transcription_providers.is_empty() {
            bail!(
                "Transcription is enabled but no transcription provider registered \
                 successfully. Configure at least one of: [transcription] (Groq) \
                 with api_key + api_url; [transcription.openai]; [transcription.deepgram]; \
                 [transcription.assemblyai]; [transcription.google]; [transcription.local_whisper]; \
                 or [providers.transcription.<type>.<alias>]."
            );
        }

        Ok(Self {

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