If the environment variable is configured in the workflow, there will be a publishing error.

[fsea]

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Dify version

1.8.1

Cloud or Self Hosted

Self Hosted (Docker)

Steps to reproduce

But it won't throw an error if the environment variable is not configured.

✔️ Expected Behavior

Normal release

❌ Actual Behavior

The error prevents publication.

[dosubot]

This publishing error happens because the workflow model's environment variables attribute (_environment_variables) can be None, which causes a TypeError when the code tries to deserialize it with json.loads. A fix was merged after v1.8.1 that ensures _environment_variables is always set to '{}' if it is None, preventing this error during publishing. You can see the relevant change here.

To resolve this, you can either upgrade to a version that includes this fix, or manually patch your current version by updating the workflow model to set _environment_variables = '{}' if it is None before deserialization. This will allow publishing to work even when environment variables are configured.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

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[fsea]

@dosu The code has already been cloned from https://github.com/langgenius/dify.git with the latest version as of September 10th. I then packaged it into a Docker container and ran it, but it still shows errors during release.

[dosubot]

The publishing error is still happening because the fix for environment variable deserialization (setting _environment_variables = '{}' if it's None) is not present in the latest code as of September 10th—even though the PR with the fix was merged, it hasn't landed in the main branch yet or your local code doesn't include it [source].

To work around this, you can manually patch your local code: in the Workflow model's environment_variables property, add this before the json.loads call:

if self._environment_variables is None:
    self._environment_variables = '{}'

Also, check your database for any workflows where environment_variables is NULL and update those records to '{}' to avoid legacy data causing the same error.

If you built your Docker image from your local code, make sure your patch is included before building. If you used a prebuilt image, it may not have the fix yet due to the Docker 'latest' tag not always matching the latest code [source].

Let me know if you need the exact code location or help with the database update!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

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[fsea]

@dosu The release fails when there are environment variables, and succeeds when there are none, so the fix you provided is not applicable.

[dosubot]

The publishing error when environment variables are present is likely caused by issues with the environment variable names in your workflow. The backend only checks that each variable has a 'name', but does not enforce that names are unique or non-empty. If you have duplicate or empty names, this can cause failures in the VariablePool or during serialization, which only happens when environment variables are configured—explaining why publishing works when none are present.

Please check your workflow and make sure all environment variable names are unique and not blank. If you fix any duplicates or empty names, publishing should work as expected. For future reliability, consider adding backend validation to enforce unique, non-empty names for environment variables in your deployment.
You can see how the backend handles this in the Workflow model and VariablePool code and variable factory.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

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[fsea]

@dosu The same workflow publishes correctly on v1.7.1, but encounters an error when published on v1.8.1.

[dosubot]

This is a regression in v1.8.1 caused by a backend change: environment variables are now stored as a dictionary keyed by variable name, so all names must be unique and non-empty. The backend does not enforce this, so if your workflow has duplicate or blank environment variable names, publishing fails—whereas v1.7.1 did not have this strict requirement and would allow it without error. This change was introduced by a refactor to the VariablePool class, which now uses variable names directly as dictionary keys, making uniqueness and non-emptiness critical for correct operation (details).

To resolve this in v1.8.1, check all your workflow environment variable names and make sure each one is unique and not blank. If you want to enforce this at the backend, you can patch the environment_variables setter in the Workflow model to raise an error if it detects duplicates or empty names before serializing. For example:

names = [var.name for var in value]
if len(names) != len(set(names)) or any(not n for n in names):
    raise ValueError("All environment variable names must be unique and non-empty")

Also, note that a separate fix for handling None values in environment variables was merged after v1.8.1 (PR #24290), but this only prevents errors when the environment variable field is missing or null—it does not address the uniqueness issue.

There are no documented migration steps or upgrade notes for this change, so manual validation and patching are needed until a future release includes stricter backend checks.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

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[ACAne0320]

I cannot reproduce this issue in v1.8.1. Could you provide a minimal workflow DSL file that reproduces this issue?

[fsea]

我无法在 v1.8.1 中重现此问题。您能否提供一个重现此问题的最小工作流 DSL 文件？

@ACAne0320

app:
description: ''
icon: 😺
icon_background: '#FFEAD5'
mode: advanced-chat
name: test2
use_icon_as_answer_icon: false
dependencies: []
kind: app
version: 0.4.0
workflow:
conversation_variables: []
environment_variables:

• description: ''
  id: e54bae80-d883-42bc-a9d8-88b2c9e02985
  name: test
  selector:
  • env
  • test
    value: '3'
    value_type: string
    features:
    file_upload:
    allowed_file_extensions:
    • .JPG
    • .JPEG
    • .PNG
    • .GIF
    • .WEBP
    • .SVG
      allowed_file_types:
    • image
      allowed_file_upload_methods:
    • local_file
    • remote_url
      enabled: false
      fileUploadConfig:
      audio_file_size_limit: 500
      batch_count_limit: 5
      file_size_limit: 1500
      image_file_size_limit: 100
      video_file_size_limit: 1000
      workflow_file_upload_limit: 10
      image:
      enabled: false
      number_limits: 3
      transfer_methods:
      • local_file
      • remote_url
        number_limits: 3
        opening_statement: ''
        retriever_resource:
        enabled: true
        sensitive_word_avoidance:
        enabled: false
        speech_to_text:
        enabled: false
        suggested_questions: []
        suggested_questions_after_answer:
        enabled: false
        text_to_speech:
        enabled: false
        language: ''
        voice: ''
        graph:
        edges:
  • data:
    isInIteration: false
    isInLoop: false
    sourceType: start
    targetType: answer
    id: 1757487220172-source-1757550783295-target
    source: '1757487220172'
    sourceHandle: source
    target: '1757550783295'
    targetHandle: target
    type: custom
    zIndex: 0
    nodes:
  • data:
    desc: ''
    selected: false
    title: 开始
    type: start
    variables: []
    height: 53
    id: '1757487220172'
    position:
    x: 80
    y: 282
    positionAbsolute:
    x: 80
    y: 282
    sourcePosition: right
    targetPosition: left
    type: custom
    width: 243
  • data:
    answer: '111'
    desc: ''
    selected: true
    title: 直接回复
    type: answer
    variables: []
    height: 101
    id: '1757550783295'
    position:
    x: 383
    y: 282
    positionAbsolute:
    x: 383
    y: 282
    sourcePosition: right
    targetPosition: left
    type: custom
    width: 243
    viewport:
    x: -129
    y: -99
    zoom: 1

[ACAne0320]

The format appears to be incorrect. Could you wrap the content in DSL with triple backticks(```)?
like this:

app:
  description: ''
  icon: 🤖
  icon_background: '#FFEAD5'
  mode: workflow
  name: test
  use_icon_as_answer_icon: false
dependencies: []
kind: app
version: 0.4.0
...

[fsea]

@ACAne0320

Please decode using base64：

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[ACAne0320]

Everything appears to be working fine in v1.8.1
Are you using the main branch?

[fsea]

Yes, use the main branch, clone the source code, and package it as a docker.

[fsea]

@ACAne0320

I upgraded from v1.7.1 to 1.8.1, will this have any impact?