affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

claim requires --owner <name>.

Error message

claim requires --owner <name>.

What it means

Thrown by claimWorkItemCli() (the CLI adapter around the shared claimWorkItem helper) when options.owner is falsy. Claiming means assigning an item to an owner, so an owner is mandatory at the CLI boundary even though the underlying helper accepts whatever it is given. This keeps the user-facing error message flag-specific.

Source

Thrown at scripts/work-items.js:396

function printGithubSyncResult(payload) {
  console.log(`GitHub sync: ${payload.repo}`);
  console.log(`  Open PRs: ${payload.prCount}`);
  console.log(`  Open issues: ${payload.issueCount}`);
  console.log(`  Closed stale items: ${payload.closedCount}`);
  if (payload.items.length === 0 && payload.closedItems.length === 0) {
    console.log('  Work items changed: none');
    return;
  }
  for (const item of [...payload.items, ...payload.closedItems]) {
    console.log(`  - ${item.id} ${item.status}: ${item.title}`);
  }
}

// Thin CLI adapter over the shared claimWorkItem helper, preserving the
// flag-specific error messages (--owner / --as) for the command line.
function claimWorkItemCli(store, options) {
  if (!options.owner) {
    throw new Error('claim requires --owner <name>.');
  }
  const assigneeKind = options.claimAs ? String(options.claimAs).toLowerCase() : null;
  if (assigneeKind && assigneeKind !== 'agent' && assigneeKind !== 'human') {
    throw new Error("--as must be 'agent' or 'human'.");
  }
  return claimWorkItem(store, {
    id: resolveWorkItemId(options),
    owner: options.owner,
    assigneeKind,
    sessionId: options.sessionId,
    status: options.status
  });
}

async function main() {
  let store = null;

  try {

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Pass --owner: `node scripts/work-items.js claim <id> --owner alice`.
2. For an agent claim, combine with --as agent: `claim <id> --owner bot --as agent`.
3. If scripting, set options.owner before calling claimWorkItemCli.

Example fix

// before
node scripts/work-items.js claim refactor-state-store

// after
node scripts/work-items.js claim refactor-state-store --owner alice

function ensureClaimOwner(options) {
  if (!options || !options.owner) {
    throw new Error('claim requires --owner <name>');
  }
  return options;
}
// call before claimWorkItemCli(store, ensureClaimOwner(options))

function hasClaimOwner(options) {
  return Boolean(options && typeof options.owner === 'string' && options.owner.trim());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `node scripts/work-items.js claim <id>` (or `claim` with no id) without --owner <name>. Any claim invocation missing the --owner flag hits this before the shared helper is called.

Common situations: Assuming the owner is inferred from the current git user or session (it is not); forgetting the flag in an automation script; passing the owner as a positional rather than via --owner.

Related errors

• Missing issue number.
• Missing --repo <owner/repo>.
• Missing GitHub repo. Pass --repo <owner/repo>.
• Missing work item id. Pass <id> or --id <id>.
• Missing --title for a new work item.

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/45c0963bc4a0641e. Report an issue: GitHub.