affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

${command} ${args.join(' ')} failed: ${(result.stderr || res

Error message

${command} ${args.join(' ')} failed: ${(result.stderr || result.stdout || '').trim()}

What it means

Thrown by runCommand() when the child process spawned successfully but exited with a non-zero status. The message embeds the trimmed stderr (falling back to stdout) so the underlying gh CLI error surfaces verbatim.

Source

Thrown at scripts/lib/github-discussions.js:31

    throw new Error(`Invalid repo: ${repo}`);
  }
  return { owner, name };
}

function runCommand(command, args, options = {}) {
  const result = spawnSync(command, args, {
    cwd: options.cwd,
    env: options.env || process.env,
    encoding: 'utf8',
    maxBuffer: 10 * 1024 * 1024,
  });

  if (result.error) {
    throw new Error(`${command} ${args.join(' ')} failed: ${result.error.message}`);
  }

  if (result.status !== 0) {
    throw new Error(`${command} ${args.join(' ')} failed: ${(result.stderr || result.stdout || '').trim()}`);
  }

  return result.stdout || '';
}

function runGhJson(args, options = {}) {
  const shimPath = process.env.ECC_GH_SHIM;
  const command = shimPath ? process.execPath : 'gh';
  const commandArgs = shimPath ? [shimPath, ...args] : args;
  const env = { ...process.env };

  if (!options.useEnvGithubToken) {
    delete env.GITHUB_TOKEN;
  }

  const stdout = runCommand(command, commandArgs, { env });
  try {
    return JSON.parse(stdout || 'null');

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

Read the embedded stderr in the error message; it usually states the exact gh failure.
Re-authenticate: gh auth login --scopes repo, then verify: gh auth status.
If rate limited, wait and retry; consider caching the response.
Confirm the repo exists and the token has access: gh repo view <owner>/<name>.
Check connectivity: gh api user >/dev/null.

Example fix

// before
const data = runGhJson(['api', 'graphql', '-f', `query=${QUERY}`], {});

// after
try {
  const data = runGhJson(['api', 'graphql', '-f', `query=${QUERY}`], {});
} catch (err) {
  if (/authentication required|HTTP 401/i.test(err.message)) {
    console.error('gh token invalid or expired. Run: gh auth login');
  }
  throw err;
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

function ghTokenLooksValid() {
  const t = process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN || '';
  return /^gh[pousr]_/.test(t) || t.length >= 20;
}
if (!ghTokenLooksValid()) {
  console.warn('GITHUB_TOKEN missing or malformed; gh may fail with 401');
}

Try / catch

try {
  return runGhJson(args, options);
} catch (err) {
  if (/HTTP 401|authentication required/i.test(err.message)) {
    throw new Error('gh auth failed — run: gh auth login');
  }
  if (/rate limit/i.test(err.message)) {
    // caller may retry after backoff
    throw err;
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Run gh auth status in CI before invoking scripts that call gh.
Confirm token scopes include repo and read:org as needed.
Surface stderr verbatim to the operator so they can act on the real gh message.

When it happens

Trigger: runCommand returns result.status !== 0. For gh this usually means authentication failure, rate limit, network/GraphQL error, unknown repo, missing scope, or invalid GraphQL query.

Common situations: gh auth token expired or lacks repo/read:org scope; rate limit hit; network proxy blocking api.github.com; repo is private and token lacks access; GraphQL query references a field removed in a GitHub schema update; ECC_GH_SHIM wrote an error to stderr.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/291f867d5a67ff41. Report an issue: GitHub.