“Invalid id” on Homey app validate — everything already tried

Developers
1

Problem:
Every Homey app (my own, sample, community) gives
✖ Invalid id
when running homey app validate — even with unique, simple IDs and on debug-level, on multiple Macs.

What I’ve tried / checked:

  1. Node/NVM/CLI setup:
  • Reinstalled NVM (official script)
  • Node.js v18.20.8 installed via nvm (node -v correct, path in ~/.nvm)
  • Homey CLI 3.8.1 installed cleanly (no old root/global CLI left)
  1. app.json:
  • Tried multiple (unique) IDs (e.g. "id": "joosttestabc123", "id": "abc123", "id": "joostsuperuniek999abc")
  • All-lowercase, no spaces, hyphens, or underscores, 3–50 characters
  • Minimal, clean app.json without drivers/assets (see below)
  • Encoding checked (file app.json gives JSON data / UTF-8)
  1. Test apps:
  • My own app, ZIP validated on other environments
  • Community/sample apps (cloned or downloaded)
  • Brand new app in an empty directory with only a minimal app.json
  1. Validation commands:
  • homey app validate
  • homey app validate --level debug
  • Always the same error: ✖ Invalid id
  1. CLI & Node environment:
  • which homey points to ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.x.x/bin/homey
  • Permissions, npm cache, global node_modules all cleaned/reset
  • Xcode Command Line Tools installed (tested on both Intel & ARM Mac)
  • Homebrew and git are up to date
  1. Also tried:
  • Downgraded CLI to 3.7.0 — same error
  • Tried on different user accounts and two separate Macs
  • Same result every time, also after reboot/fresh terminal

Extra info:

  • Sample app.json:

json

KopiërenBewerken

{
  "id": "joostsuperuniek999abc",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "compatibility": ">=5.0.0",
  "name": { "en": "Test", "nl": "Test" },
  "description": { "en": "Test", "nl": "Test" },
  "category": ["other"],
  "author": { "name": "Test", "email": "test@test.com" },
  "drivers": []
}
  • Node: v18.20.8 (which node is in ~/.nvm)
  • Homey CLI: 3.8.1 (which homey is in ~/.nvm)
  • Error message always:

bash

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✓ Pre-processing app...
✓ Validating app...
✖ App did not validate against level `debug`:
✖ Invalid id
  • My app-zip validates fine on other systems, installs/validates instantly

My question:

What can I try next? Is this a bug in the Homey CLI validator on Mac or a recent dependency, or does it now always check IDs against a (remote?) database, even on debug-level?
Any tips? Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks in advance for your help!
— Joost

2

Your App id should look like a reversed domain name. For example I have apps
fi.oh2th.aprs-is
fi.oh2th.alarmutils

oh2th.fi is my personal registered domain name. I also develop and maintain some apps for brands:

com.go-e.charger and
com.sensibo

And so on.

Explained in detail in Getting Started | Homey Apps SDK

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