# Payu run str error with rom3

**URL:** <https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/payu-run-str-error-with-rom3/6963>\
**Category:** Working Group\
**Tags:** access-nri\
**Created:** [3 September 2026 00:16 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/payu-run-str-error-with-rom3/6963 "2026-09-03T00:16:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wilton\_Aguiar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/wilton_aguiar/32/236_2.png) [@Wilton\_Aguiar](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Wilton_Aguiar)\
**Post date:** [3 September 2026 00:16 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/payu-run-str-error-with-rom3/6963/1 "2026-09-03T00:16:29Z")

</div>

I have been following[these instructions](https://github.com/claireyung/access-om3-configs/blob/access-rom3-panan4km-iceshelf/ice_shelf_instructions.md) to run ACCESS-ROM3 from rest, with all the setup initiated from an interactive `payu clone`, etc. I’m using `payu/1.3.5_0`.

Everything goes well until I run `payu run`, at which point I get the following error:

```auto
[ERROR] 'str' object cannot be interpreted as an integer

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/containerised_envs/payu/1.3.5_0/lib/python3.10/site-packages/payu/cli.py", line 323, in _execute_command

    func(**args)

  File "/containerised_envs/payu/1.3.5_0/lib/python3.10/site-packages/payu/subcommands/run_cmd.py", line 75, in runcmd

    cpu_q, mem_q = PBS.get_queue_node_shape(queue)

  File "/containerised_envs/payu/1.3.5_0/lib/python3.10/site-packages/payu/schedulers/pbs.py", line 305, in get_queue_node_shape

    data = read_pbsnode_file()

  File "/containerised_envs/payu/1.3.5_0/lib/python3.10/site-packages/payu/schedulers/pbs.py", line 89, in read_pbsnode_file

    check_pbsnode_file(pbsnodes_json_path)

  File "/containerised_envs/payu/1.3.5_0/lib/python3.10/site-packages/payu/schedulers/pbs.py", line 62, in check_pbsnode_file

    timestamp = datetime.fromtimestamp(pbsnodes_json.get("timestamp", 0))

TypeError: 'str' object cannot be interpreted as an integer

```

The error is quite ominous. Does anyone have an idea what I might be doing wrong?

Note: I followed Step 1 exactly as stated on GitHub, with no additional changes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wilton\_Aguiar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/wilton_aguiar/32/236_2.png) [@Wilton\_Aguiar](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Wilton_Aguiar)\
**Post date:** [3 September 2026 00:50 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/payu-run-str-error-with-rom3/6963/2 "2026-09-03T00:50:44Z")

</div>

after a back and forth with an AI coding agent, I was able to fix the problem. it seems like my personal cache was corrupted and putting strings in the PBS timestamp .

e.g. `"timestamp": ""`  
instead of e.g. `"timestamp":1788396111`

I was able to fix by just moving out of the way my `pbsnodes.json` and allowing the system to create a new one.

(e.g. `mv ~/.cache/pbs/pbsnodes.json ~/.cache/pbs/pbsnodes.json.bad`)

marking this as a solution in case someone else have the same problem

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\
**Post date:** [3 September 2026 00:55 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/payu-run-str-error-with-rom3/6963/3 "2026-09-03T00:55:15Z")

</div>

Thanks for reporting @Wilton_Aguiar, and great you solved it youself. We have an [existing issue](https://github.com/payu-org/payu/issues/791) for this, so it is clearly something that is affecting users and should be fixed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Qianhui\_Chen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/qianhui_chen/32/4372_2.png) [@Qianhui\_Chen](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Qianhui_Chen)\
**Post date:** [9 September 2026 06:35 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/payu-run-str-error-with-rom3/6963/4 "2026-09-09T06:35:51Z")

</div>

Thank you @Wilton_Aguiar for reporting this!

This bug has now been fixed in payu/1.3.6 (see [release post](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/payu-a-workflow-manager-for-some-access-models/1098/16#p-24297-h-5-bug-fix-empty-string-timestamp-causing-errors-10)). Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you come across any other questions or issues.