Bad Configuration Examples

The bad-config-examples/ directory in the repository root contains YAML files that intentionally trigger validation errors. They are used to test and demonstrate the validator — each one illustrates a specific failure mode.

How to Use

Trigger validation via the web UI

  1. Copy one of the example files into a prism’s sub-prism directory
  2. Select that prism in the installer
  3. Navigate to the Confirmation step
  4. The validator will report the exact error (inline — no alerts)

Trigger validation via CLI

prism packages validate my-company

Error Reference

Missing required field — bad-company-no-name.yaml

The company.name field is absent.

company:
  domain: "example.com"
  # Missing 'name' field

Output:

Company field 'name' cannot be empty

Invalid YAML syntax — bad-syntax.yaml

Mismatched indentation and an unmatched quote.

company:
  name: My Company
    invalid_indentation: true   # bad indent
git:
  url: https://github.com
  missing: quote here"          # unmatched quote

Output:

Invalid YAML syntax: while scanning a simple key...

Invalid git URL — bad-git-url.yaml

The git URL uses an unsupported protocol.

git:
  url: "ftp://invalid-protocol.com"
  enterprise:
    enterprise_url: "not-a-url"

Output:

Invalid git URL format: ftp://invalid-protocol.com
Invalid GitHub Enterprise URL: not-a-url

Valid protocols: https://, http://, git@

Wrong data type — bad-types.yaml

A section that must be a dictionary is a string instead.

company: "This should be a dictionary!"

Output:

'company' must be a dictionary

Empty configuration — empty.yaml

A completely empty file.

# (no content)

Output:

Configuration file is empty: empty.yaml

Missing organization name — bad-org.yaml

An organization entry is missing its name field.

organization:
  id: "eng-org"
  description: "Engineering Organization"
  # Missing 'name'

Output:

Organization missing required 'name' field

Invalid proxy URL — bad-proxy.yaml

Proxy URLs must use http:// or https://.

environment:
  proxy:
    http: "proxy.example.com:8080"         # Missing protocol
    https: "socks5://proxy.example.com"    # Wrong protocol

Output:

Invalid http proxy URL: proxy.example.com:8080
Invalid https proxy URL: socks5://proxy.example.com

Tool registry errors

The config engine validates the tool registry. Common issues:

Tool missing install commands:

# tool-registry.yaml
mytool:
  label: My Tool
  category: cli
  # Missing 'platforms' — no install commands

Output:

tool_registry.mytool has no install commands (platforms)

Tool missing uninstall commands:

mytool:
  label: My Tool
  category: cli
  platforms:
    mac: brew install mytool
  # Missing 'uninstall' — rollback cannot remove this tool

Output:

tool_registry.mytool has no uninstall commands — rollback will not be able to remove this tool

Tool reference not in registry:

# sub-prism config references a tool that doesn't exist in tool-registry.yaml
tools_required:
  - nonexistent-tool

Output:

tools_required references 'nonexistent-tool' which is not in the tool registry

Warnings vs. Errors

The validator distinguishes between hard errors (installation blocked) and warnings (installation proceeds with a note):

Severity Examples
Error Missing required field, invalid URL, empty file, bad YAML syntax
Warning Missing recommended field (email), no README.md in prism, tool missing uninstall commands, tool reference not in registry

Warnings appear in the validation output but do not prevent installation.

See Also