JuliusBrussee/caveman · error

unsupported provider ${JSON.stringify(value)}

Error message

unsupported provider ${JSON.stringify(value)}

What it means

parseProvider normalizes (trim + lowercase) its input and accepts exactly 'anthropic', 'openai', or 'google'. Anything else — including values passed via --provider or typed at the interactive prompt — throws with the JSON.stringify'd original value so whitespace or case surprises are visible. This runs before any scaffold files are written.

Source

Thrown at packages/create-caveman-agent/src/index.ts:302

npm run check
\`\`\`

Local results are inferred. Verified savings remain $0 until active real
traffic passes existing Caveman rollout and ledger gates.
`,
  };
}

function credentialName(provider: Provider): string {
  if (provider === "anthropic") return "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY";
  if (provider === "openai") return "OPENAI_API_KEY";
  return "GEMINI_API_KEY (or GOOGLE_API_KEY)";
}

function parseProvider(value: string): Provider {
  const normalized = value.trim().toLowerCase();
  if (normalized === "anthropic" || normalized === "openai" || normalized === "google") return normalized;
  throw new Error(`unsupported provider ${JSON.stringify(value)}`);
}

function safeName(value: string): string {
  const normalized = value.toLowerCase().replace(/[^a-z0-9_-]+/g, "-").replace(/^-+|-+$/g, "");
  if (!normalized) throw new Error("project name must contain a letter or number");
  return normalized.slice(0, 96);
}

async function assertAbsent(path: string): Promise<void> {
  try {
    await stat(path);
    throw new Error(`target already exists: ${path}`);
  } catch (error) {
    if ((error as NodeJS.ErrnoException).code !== "ENOENT") throw error;
  }
}

main().catch((error) => {

View on GitHub (pinned to 27d5a3981a)

Solutions

1. Use one of the three canonical values: anthropic, openai, google (case-insensitive).
2. For Gemini, pass --provider google, not gemini.
3. Check the echoed JSON in the error for hidden whitespace or quote characters and retype the flag.

Example fix

# before
npm create @caveman-ai/agent@latest myapp --provider gemini
# after
npm create @caveman-ai/agent@latest myapp --provider google

const PROVIDERS = new Set(["anthropic", "openai", "google"]);
function isProvider(v: string): boolean {
  return PROVIDERS.has(v.trim().toLowerCase());
}

type Provider = "anthropic" | "openai" | "google";
function isProvider(value: string): value is Provider {
  return ["anthropic", "openai", "google"].includes(value.trim().toLowerCase());
}

When it happens

Trigger: `--provider Azure`, `--provider anthropic ` with smart quotes, `--provider gemini` (the accepted name is 'google'), or answering 'claude' at the interactive prompt.

Common situations: Using the model-vendor name instead of the provider key (gemini vs google, claude vs anthropic), trailing whitespace from copy-paste, or non-ASCII quotes introduced by rich-text editors/chat apps.

Related errors

• cave_provider_identity_missing
• cave_provider_model_identity_mismatch
• ${key} is required
• --provider requires a value
• unknown option ${value}

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@27d5a3981a (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/831db31402b0dcab. Report an issue: GitHub.