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Better error message if using new device manager without the new environment variable #1359
Description
If BlueAPI is running and using a dodal module which defines its devices using the new device factory, eg like
@devices.factory()
def smargon() -> Smargon:
return Smargon(f"{PREFIX.beamline_prefix}-MO-SGON-01:")
and if the blueapi's values.yaml is missing the new environment variable required, eg
- kind: deviceManager
module: dodal.beamlines.i04
then posting a plan will give a BlueAPI validation error which isn't very obvious. The message body on the validation error response looks like: Value error, Device smargon is not of type dodal.devices.smargon.Smargon (etc for all devices in the plan you were trying to run). I didn't really have any idea where to look from that error message.
It would be really helpful if the error message pointed out that the deviceManager configuration was missing
Activity
tpoliaw commentedon Jan 29, 2026
This is partly covered by #1194 (and relates to #1193)
It's difficult to tell in blueapi that a module should use
deviceManagerinstead ofdodalbut we should definitely improve the error message.dodalversion and warn if anyone is using it. We are aiming to remove the dodal dependency soon so this will help with that.Would that help debug situations like this?
olliesilvester commentedon Jan 29, 2026
Yes, that all sounds good thanks