JuliusBrussee/caveman · error

no trial_id supplied and no trial runs exist

Error message

no trial_id supplied and no trial runs exist

What it means

This error comes from the caveman-proxy CLI's requiredTrialID helper (proxy/cmd/caveman-proxy/main.go:931). Trial subcommands need a trial_id; if --trial-id is not given, the helper falls back to the most recent trial recorded in the local SQLite spend store. When no --trial-id flag was passed AND the spend store has never recorded any trial run, it exits with this fatal error because there is no sensible default trial to operate on.

Solutions

1. Run a trial first (the command that records trial runs) so LatestTrialID() returns a value
2. Pass the trial explicitly: add --trial-id <id> to the command
3. Check that ~/.caveman/caveman.db is the store you expect (HOME differences in cron/CI) and contains trial runs
4. Verify the flag spelling is --trial-id; a misspelled flag makes requiredTrialID fall through to the empty store

Example fix

// before
caveman-proxy trial promote --optimizer my-opt
// after
caveman-proxy trial promote --trial-id 2026-09-20-a --optimizer my-opt

trialID := argFlag(args, "--trial-id", "")
if trialID == "" {
    if latest, _ := spend.LatestTrialID(); latest == "" {
        return fmt.Errorf("no trial available: run a trial first or pass --trial-id")
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running a trial subcommand (via runTrial, e.g. trial plan/promote/report) without --trial-id on a machine whose ~/.caveman/caveman.db contains zero trial rows — either a fresh install or a database where no trial was ever started.

Common situations: Fresh install of caveman-proxy where the user jumps straight to a trial promote/report command; cleared or recreated spend store; typo'd flag name (--trialid vs --trial-id) so the fallback lookup runs and finds nothing; copying commands from docs to a new workstation.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• optimizer not found in trial
• usage: caveman-proxy learn applied
• usage: caveman-proxy learn apply
• usage: caveman-proxy learn simulate
• usage: caveman-proxy usage import codex|claude

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@3ee70a1026 (2026-09-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ac80adab2fc75e34. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at proxy/cmd/caveman-proxy/main.go:931

	spend, err := store.Open(dbPath(home), logger)
	if err != nil {
		logger.Error("cannot open local spend store", "error", err)
		os.Exit(1)
	}
	return spend
}

func requiredTrialID(logger *slog.Logger, spend *store.Store, args []string) string {
	trialID := argFlag(args, "--trial-id", "")
	if trialID != "" {
		return trialID
	}
	latest, err := spend.LatestTrialID()
	if err != nil {
		fatalJSON(logger, err)
	}
	if latest == "" {
		fatalJSON(logger, fmt.Errorf("no trial_id supplied and no trial runs exist"))
	}
	return latest
}

func promoteMove(logger *slog.Logger, home, trialID, optimizerID string, plan store.TrialPlan) {
	var move store.TrialMove
	for _, candidate := range plan.Moves {
		if candidate.OptimizerID == optimizerID {
			move = candidate
			break
		}
	}
	if move.OptimizerID == "" {
		fatalJSON(logger, fmt.Errorf("optimizer %q not found in trial %s", optimizerID, trialID))
	}
	if move.Status != "safe_now" || !(strings.HasPrefix(move.SafetyClass, "S0_") || strings.HasPrefix(move.SafetyClass, "S1_")) {
		path := filepath.Join(home, "reports", "caveman-trial-"+trialID+"-"+optimizerID+"-candidate.yaml")
		if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(path), 0o700); err != nil {

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