TypeError in asyncpg.connect() for specific parameters when values are not str enough

Author: akaIDIOTCreated Jul 29, 2026Updated Aug 8, 2026

When calling asyncpg.connect() with values that are simple str, things work as I expect them to work. Not all of the arguments are treated the same, though. When values that go through the WriteBuffer onto the wire are str, but maybe not only a str, WriteBuffer.write_str raises a TypeError. My concrete use case where I ran into this is connection parameters that were read from a TOML file using tomlkit, which produces tomlkit.items.String values, that are instances of str, but are not accepted.

The following example script demonstrates the issue using enum.StrEnum, which causes the same unexpected error:

python

import asyncio
import enum

import asyncpg


class Connect(enum.StrEnum):
    HOST = 'localhost'
    USER = 'postgresql'


async def connect_host():
    return await asyncpg.connect(host=Connect.HOST)


async def connect_host_user():
    return await asyncpg.connect(host=Connect.HOST, user=Connect.USER)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    print('HOST is str:', isinstance(Connect.HOST, str))
    print('USER is str:', isinstance(Connect.USER, str))

    try:
        asyncio.run(connect_host())
    except asyncpg.PostgresError as e:
        print('not connected:', repr(e))

    try:
        asyncio.run(connect_host_user())
    except asyncpg.PostgresError as e:
        # this except block is never hit, connection setup encounters a TypeError
        print('not connected:', repr(e))

The output of this script is as follows (Python 3.14.6 on Linux amd64, asyncpg 0.31.0):

traceback

HOST is str: True
USER is str: True
not connected: InvalidAuthorizationSpecificationError('role "user" does not exist')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "asyncpg/protocol/protocol.pyx", line 978, in asyncpg.protocol.protocol.BaseProtocol.connection_made
  File "asyncpg/protocol/coreproto.pyx", line 947, in asyncpg.protocol.protocol.CoreProtocol._connect
TypeError: Expected str, got Connect

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

[...]

  File "asyncpg/protocol/protocol.pyx", line 983, in asyncpg.protocol.protocol.BaseProtocol.connection_made
AttributeError: 'Protocol' object has no attribute '_on_error'

Using a enum here is a bit odd of course, the point is that the values being passed to asyncpg.connect() are str and treated differently depending on where that argument ends up in the connection setup.

My expectation is that values that are instances of str are used as such and work as intended. The full array connection parameters in my code are read through tomlkit, which produces values that very much quack and walk like a str .

Are these values being rejected for good reason, or should these just be accepted?

Source: MagicStack/asyncpg

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