JuliusBrussee/caveman · error

usage: caveman-proxy learn applied

Error message

usage: caveman-proxy learn applied <sink_id> [--fix-kind <k>] [--note <s>]

What it means

Thrown by runLearn's `applied` branch when the positional sink id is missing: `caveman-proxy learn applied <sink_id> [--fix-kind <k>] [--note <s>]`. This subcommand records that a fix was actually applied for a sink, so RecordAppliedFix needs the sink id to key the record.

Solutions

1. Provide the sink id positional: `caveman-proxy learn applied <sink_id> --fix-kind <k> --note <s>`.
2. Get valid sink ids from `learn scan` or `learn report --json`.
3. In scripts, fail fast if the sink id variable is empty before invoking the CLI.

Example fix

// before
caveman-proxy learn applied --fix-kind config --note "trimmed CLAUDE.md"
// after
caveman-proxy learn applied context-overload-7f3a --fix-kind config --note "trimmed CLAUDE.md"

// shell
if [ -z "$SINK_ID" ]; then echo "learn applied requires a positional sink_id" >&2; exit 2; fi
caveman-proxy learn applied "$SINK_ID" --fix-kind "$KIND" --note "$NOTE"

When it happens

Trigger: `caveman-proxy learn applied`, or passing only flags like `--fix-kind note --note "x"` without the bare sink id positional.

Common situations: Recording applied fixes in automation/scripts where the sink id variable was empty; confusing `learn applied` (records a fix) with `learn apply` (materializes a candidate) and omitting the id in both.

Understand the failure class

Background: "no subcommand specified" and "... is required": CLI errors when a required argument is missing — this error's family across 13 libraries.

Related errors

• usage: caveman-proxy learn apply
• usage: caveman-proxy learn simulate
• no trial_id supplied and no trial runs exist
• sink not found in current learn plan
• unknown learn subcommand

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@3ee70a1026 (2026-09-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/637737d85eae1ac6. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at proxy/cmd/caveman-proxy/main.go:739

		savings, err := spend.BuildLearnSavings(cwd, sources, since)
		if err != nil {
			fatalJSON(logger, err)
		}
		printJSON(savings)
	case "apply":
		sinkID := firstPositional(args)
		if sinkID == "" {
			fatalJSON(logger, fmt.Errorf("usage: caveman-proxy learn apply <sink_id> [--dry-run]"))
		}
		plan, err := spend.BuildLearnPlan(cwd, sources, since)
		if err != nil {
			fatalJSON(logger, err)
		}
		applyLearnSink(logger, home, sinkID, hasArg(args, "--dry-run"), plan)
	case "applied":
		sinkID := firstPositional(args)
		if sinkID == "" {
			fatalJSON(logger, fmt.Errorf("usage: caveman-proxy learn applied <sink_id> [--fix-kind <k>] [--note <s>]"))
		}
		plan, err := spend.BuildLearnPlanFilteredWithRetro(cwd, sources, since, store.RetroOptions{}, repoFilter)
		if err != nil {
			fatalJSON(logger, err)
		}
		recorded, err := spend.RecordAppliedFix(plan, sinkID, argFlag(args, "--fix-kind", ""), argFlag(args, "--note", ""))
		if err != nil {
			fatalJSON(logger, err)
		}
		printJSON(recorded)
	case "simulate":
		sinkIDs := learnSinkPositionals(args)
		if len(sinkIDs) == 0 {
			fatalJSON(logger, fmt.Errorf("usage: caveman-proxy learn simulate <sink_id> [<sink_id>...] [--sources <list>] [--since <window>]"))
		}
		simulation, err := spend.BuildLearnSimulationFiltered(cwd, sources, since, sinkIDs, repoFilter)
		if err != nil {
			fatalJSON(logger, err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 3ee70a1026)