affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

Missing value for ${arg}

Error message

Missing value for ${arg}

What it means

Thrown by scripts/work-items.js parseArgs when a VALUE_FLAGS member (e.g. --id, --title, --limit, --owner, --db, etc.) is passed but the next token is missing or itself starts with '--'. The guard `if (!value || value.startsWith('--'))` prevents one flag from silently consuming the next flag's name as its value. Each value flag requires a concrete argument.

Source

Thrown at scripts/work-items.js:107

    json: false,
    limit: 20,
    positionals: []
  };

  if (args[0] && !args[0].startsWith('-')) {
    parsed.command = args.shift();
  }

  for (let index = 0; index < args.length; index += 1) {
    const arg = args[index];
    if (arg === '--help' || arg === '-h') {
      parsed.help = true;
    } else if (arg === '--json') {
      parsed.json = true;
    } else if (VALUE_FLAGS.has(arg)) {
      const value = args[index + 1];
      if (!value || value.startsWith('--')) {
        throw new Error(`Missing value for ${arg}`);
      }
      assignOption(parsed, arg, value);
      index += 1;
    } else if (!arg.startsWith('-')) {
      parsed.positionals.push(arg);
    } else {
      throw new Error(`Unknown argument: ${arg}`);
    }
  }

  return parsed;
}

function parseMetadataJson(value) {
  if (value === undefined || value === null) {
    return null;
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Provide a non-flag value immediately after the flag: `--title "Ship feature X"`.
2. If the value would legitimately be empty, omit the flag rather than passing it empty.
3. Reorder so the value flag is not immediately followed by another flag.

Example fix

// before
node scripts/work-items.js upsert --title

// after
node scripts/work-items.js upsert --title "Ship feature X"

const VALUE_FLAGS = new Set(['--as','--db','--github-repo','--id','--limit','--metadata-json','--owner','--priority','--repo','--repo-root','--session','--session-id','--source','--source-id','--status','--title','--url']);
function validateWorkItemsArgs(argv) {
  for (let i = 0; i < argv.length; i++) {
    const tok = argv[i];
    if (VALUE_FLAGS.has(tok)) {
      const val = argv[i + 1];
      if (!val || val.startsWith('--')) {
        throw new Error(`Flag ${tok} requires a value`);
      }
      i += 1;
    }
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: `node scripts/work-items.js upsert --title` (no title text); `node scripts/work-items.js claim --owner` (no owner name); `node scripts/work-items.js list --limit --json` (--limit immediately followed by --json).

Common situations: A wrapper script interpolating an empty variable into a flag value; reordering flags so a value flag lands last; passing a flag whose value legitimately could start with '--' is intentionally rejected to avoid ambiguity.

Related errors

• Unknown argument: ${arg}
• ${label} must be a positive integer
• Unknown install target: ${parsed.target}. Expected one of ${
• Invalid ${flagName}: ${value}
• Invalid format: ${parsed.format}. Use text, json, or markdow

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d7ef6266f3f300b2. Report an issue: GitHub.