Yeachan-Heo/oh-my-codex · error · Error

Missing value for ${flag}.

Error message

Missing value for ${flag}.

What it means

The autopilot arg parser supports both `--flag=value` and `--flag value` forms. In the two-token form, if the token after the flag is missing, empty, or is itself another `--flag`, the value is considered missing and the error names the flag that lacked a value.

Source

Thrown at src/cli/autopilot.ts:34

  omx autopilot advance --to <ralplan|ultragoal> --handoff-json <json-or-path> [--session <id>] [--json]

The supervisor owns one session-scoped autopilot-state.json. Child stages remain
supervised phases; advance validates durable artifacts and cannot skip stages.
Cancel and state clear remain available through their normal exact-session paths.
`;

interface AutopilotCommandDependencies {
  cwd?: () => string;
  stdout?: (line: string) => void;
}

function value(args: readonly string[], flag: string): string | undefined {
  const inline = args.find((arg) => arg.startsWith(`${flag}=`));
  if (inline) return inline.slice(flag.length + 1);
  const index = args.indexOf(flag);
  if (index < 0) return undefined;
  const result = args[index + 1];
  if (!result || result.startsWith('--')) throw new Error(`Missing value for ${flag}.`);
  return result;
}

function positionalTask(args: readonly string[]): string {
  const valueFlags = new Set(['--task', '--session', '--to', '--handoff-json']);
  const words: string[] = [];
  for (let i = 0; i < args.length; i += 1) {
    if (valueFlags.has(args[i])) { i += 1; continue; }
    if (!args[i].startsWith('--')) words.push(args[i]);
  }
  return words.join(' ').trim();
}

async function jsonInput(raw: string): Promise<Record<string, unknown>> {
  const text = raw.trim().startsWith('{') ? raw : await readFile(raw, 'utf-8');
  const parsed = JSON.parse(text) as unknown;
  if (!parsed || typeof parsed !== 'object' || Array.isArray(parsed)) throw new Error('--handoff-json must resolve to a JSON object.');
  return parsed as Record<string, unknown>;

View on GitHub (pinned to 3ad79a8a6f)

Solutions

1. Supply the value: `--task "fix the bug"` or inline `--task="fix the bug"`
2. If the value legitimately starts with `--`, use the `--flag=value` inline form to disambiguate
3. Fix scripts so flags and values are appended as a pair, never conditionally one-sided

Example fix

# before
omx autopilot --task --to alice
# after
omx autopilot --task="--to alice considered as text" --to alice

function flagValue(args: string[], flag: string): string | undefined {
  const i = args.indexOf(flag);
  if (i < 0) return undefined;
  const v = args[i + 1];
  if (!v || v.startsWith('--')) throw new Error(`Missing value for ${flag}.`);
  return v;
}

catch (e) { const m = /Missing value for (.+)\./.exec(String(e)); if (m) { repromptForFlag(m[1]); } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling autopilot with `--task --to alice` (value looks like another flag), `--task` as the last argument, or an empty inline value edge in `--session`/`--task`/`--to`/`--handoff-json`.

Common situations: Flag ordering mistakes; scripts conditionally appending a flag without its value; values that genuinely start with `--` (e.g. a task string beginning with dashes).

Related errors

• Missing value after --prompt
• Missing value after --actor
• Unknown adapt argument: ${arg}
• Unknown adapt subcommand: ${subcommand}. Supported subcomman
• agents-init accepts at most one path argument.\n${AGENTS_INI

AI-assisted analysis of Yeachan-Heo/oh-my-codex@3ad79a8a6f (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c5f0b01e30cc7ce1. Report an issue: GitHub.