Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · anyhow::Error

Unrecognized --provider

Error message

Unrecognized --provider {provider_arg:?}. Known providers: {} or a configured [providers.<name>] custom provider

What it means

The `--provider` CLI flag only accepts values that ApiProvider::parse recognizes (built-in providers) or names that match a configured `[providers.<name>]` custom provider. Any other string bails with the list of known providers.

Solutions

Run with a valid built-in provider name from the Known providers hint
Add a `[providers.<name>]` section to your config for the custom provider, then retry
Check spelling/case of the --provider value against the hint list

Example fix

// before
codewhale --provider openai-chat ...
// after
codewhale --provider openai ...   # or add [providers.openai-chat] to the config

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// pre-check the value before invoking the CLI
// valid = builtin provider name or a table present in config: [providers.<name>]

Try / catch

match run_result { Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("Unrecognized --provider") => { eprintln!("{}", e); /* surface hint and exit non-zero */ }, other => other? }

Prevention

Copy provider names from the Known providers hint verbatim
Define [providers.<name>] in config before referencing a custom provider
Validate provider names in scripts against a fixed allowlist

When it happens

Trigger: Running `codewhale --provider <name> ...` where <name> is misspelled, not a built-in provider, and has no matching `[providers.<name>]` table in the config file.

Common situations: Typo in provider name; using a provider's marketing name instead of its configured id; forgetting to add the [providers.<name>] section before passing a custom provider on the CLI; case-sensitivity mismatches.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Unknown argument", "Invalid value", and "must be one of": invalid CLI argument errors explained — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/836bd139d49714f9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/lib.rs:925

fn apply_exec_provider_override(config: &mut Config, provider_arg: &str) -> Result<()> {
    let provider_arg = provider_arg.trim();
    if provider_arg.is_empty() {
        return Ok(());
    }
    if config
        .providers
        .as_ref()
        .and_then(|providers| providers.custom_provider_config(provider_arg))
        .is_some()
    {
        config.provider = Some(provider_arg.to_string());
        return Ok(());
    }
    if let Some(provider) = crate::config::ApiProvider::parse(provider_arg) {
        config.provider = Some(provider.as_str().to_string());
        return Ok(());
    }
    bail!(
        "Unrecognized --provider {provider_arg:?}. Known providers: {} \
         or a configured [providers.<name>] custom provider",
        crate::config::ApiProvider::names_hint()
    );
}

fn exec_model_env_override() -> Option<String> {
    let read = || {
        ["CODEWHALE_MODEL", "DEEPSEEK_MODEL"]
            .into_iter()
            .find_map(|key| {
                std::env::var(key)
                    .ok()
                    .map(|model| model.trim().to_string())
                    .filter(|model| !model.is_empty())
            })
    };
    #[cfg(test)]

View on GitHub (pinned to 73e0f67d83)