What causes "--days must be an integer from 1 through 90" in Hmbown/CodeWhale?

Pass a plain integer between 1 and 90: --days 30.

Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · Error

--days must be an integer from 1 through 90

Error message

--days must be an integer from 1 through 90

What it means

parseArgs requires the --days value to be an integer between 1 and 90 inclusive (Number.isInteger(days) && days >= 1 && days <= 90). This bounds the active-installs report to a sane window; anything outside — non-numeric text, floats, 0, negatives, or values beyond 90 — throws this error.

Solutions

Pass a plain integer between 1 and 90: --days 30.
Ensure a value actually follows --days (a missing value becomes NaN).
If you need a longer window, run the report multiple times (e.g. several 90-day spans) or adjust the 1–90 bound in parseArgs deliberately.
Validate/normalize the number in the wrapper script before invoking (Number.isInteger check).

Example fix

// before
node scripts/report-active-installs.mjs --days 365
// after
node scripts/report-active-installs.mjs --days 90

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const days = Number(process.argv[process.argv.indexOf('--days') + 1]);
if (!Number.isInteger(days) || days < 1 || days > 90) {
  console.error('--days must be an integer from 1 through 90');
}

Type guard

const isReportWindow = (n) => Number.isInteger(n) && n >= 1 && n <= 90;

Try / catch

try {
  await main(process.argv.slice(2));
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.startsWith('--days must be')) {
    console.error('example: --days 30 (integer, 1-90)'); process.exit(2);
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Always supply an integer immediately after --days.
Clamp wrapper-script day windows to [1, 90] before invoking.
Never pass identifiers like 'week' or '1m'; convert to days in the caller.
Remember missing values become NaN and are rejected.

When it happens

Trigger: --days followed by a missing or non-numeric value (Number(undefined) => NaN, Number('abc') => NaN), a decimal like 7.5, 0, a negative number, or an integer greater than 90 such as --days 365.

Common situations: Forgetting the value after --days; passing 'week' or '1m' instead of a number; trying a year-long report and hitting the 90-day cap; locale-formatted numbers like '7,5'.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@433685b202 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/51a376d8107267dc. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at telemetry-ingest/scripts/report-active-installs.mjs:50

  // window that fills both sides of the 7-day trend.
  let days = 15;
  let json = false;
  for (let index = 0; index < argv.length; index += 1) {
    const arg = argv[index];
    if (arg === "--json") {
      json = true;
      continue;
    }
    if (arg === "--days") {
      const raw = argv[index + 1];
      index += 1;
      days = Number(raw);
      continue;
    }
    throw new Error(`unknown argument: ${arg}`);
  }
  if (!Number.isInteger(days) || days < 1 || days > 90) {
    throw new Error("--days must be an integer from 1 through 90");
  }
  return { days, json };
}

export function activeInstallsSql(days) {
  return `SELECT
  toDate(timestamp) AS day,
  count(DISTINCT index1) AS active_installs,
  sum(_sample_interval) AS sessions_started
FROM codewhale_telemetry
WHERE timestamp >= toStartOfDay(NOW()) - INTERVAL '${days - 1}' DAY
  AND blob1 = 'session_start'
GROUP BY day
ORDER BY day DESC
FORMAT JSON`;
}

/** Newest ingested event of any kind — how stale the dataset is. */

View on GitHub (pinned to 433685b202)