affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

--launch and --dry-run are mutually exclusive.

Error message

--launch and --dry-run are mutually exclusive.

What it means

parseArgs rejects command lines that pass both --launch and --dry-run. --launch forces a terminal window to open and run the executable, while --dry-run only prints what would happen without spawning anything; together they are contradictory, so the parser fails fast instead of guessing an intent.

Solutions

1. Remove either --launch or --dry-run from the command line; keep --dry-run alone to preview the command.
2. If a wrapper script injects --launch, drop the manual --dry-run flag or make the wrapper conditional.
3. Use --detect (without --launch) if the goal is inspecting terminal capability without launching.

Example fix

// before
node open-terminal.js --launch --dry-run -- vim notes.txt
// after
node open-terminal.js --dry-run -- vim notes.txt

const hasLaunch = argv.includes('--launch');
const hasDryRun = argv.includes('--dry-run');
if (hasLaunch && hasDryRun) throw new Error('Pass either --launch or --dry-run, not both.');

try {
  const options = parseArgs(argv);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.includes('mutually exclusive')) {
    console.error('Usage: open-terminal [--launch|--dry-run] [--terminal T] [--cwd D] -- <executable>');
    process.exitCode = 2;
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking `node open-terminal.js --launch --dry-run -- <executable>` (in either order) makes both launchRequested and dryRunRequested true, hitting the mutual-exclusion check after option parsing.

Common situations: Shell aliases or wrapper scripts that hardcode --launch combined with a user-supplied --dry-run; copy-pasting example commands from docs where one already had --launch and the user appends --dry-run to 'see what it would do'; CI templates merging both flags.

Understand the failure class

Background: "mutually exclusive" flag errors: what "can't supply both nx and xx", "--raw is not compatible with -i" and "cannot be used with" mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• --all-harnesses and --harness are mutually exclusive.
• Choose exactly one memory body source: --stdin or…
• Conflict messages require at least one --file
• connector name required unless --all is set
• graph sync does not accept a session ID when --all is set

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@8321021c54 (2026-09-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5540097d3a8f63d2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at skills/terminal-opener/scripts/open-terminal.js:137

    } else if (argument === '--detect') {
      options.detect = true;
    } else if (argument === '--launch') {
      launchRequested = true;
      options.dryRun = false;
    } else if (argument === '--dry-run') {
      dryRunRequested = true;
      options.dryRun = true;
    } else if (argument === '--json') {
      options.json = true;
    } else if (argument === '--help' || argument === '-h') {
      options.help = true;
    } else {
      throw new Error(`Unknown option "${argument}"; put the executable after --.`);
    }
  }

  if (launchRequested && dryRunRequested) {
    throw new Error('--launch and --dry-run are mutually exclusive.');
  }

  validateTerminalName(options.terminal);
  validateCwd(options.cwd);
  if (!options.help && !options.detect && !options.executable) {
    throw new Error('An executable is required after --.');
  }
  if (options.executable) validateExecutable(options.executable);
  validateArgv(options.argv);
  return options;
}

function unsupportedPlan(options) {
  return {
    ok: false,
    reason: 'unsupported-terminal',
    action: `Terminal "${options.terminal}" is not supported. Install WezTerm, then rerun with --terminal wezterm.`,
    terminal: options.terminal,

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