affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

Missing work item id.

Error message

Missing work item id.

What it means

Thrown by the 'show' command branch when resolveWorkItemId(options) returns null. Show fetches a single item by id from the SQLite store, so it cannot operate without one. Unlike the upsert message (481), this one is terse ('Missing work item id.') because show has no --id-or-title alternative to recommend.

Source

Thrown at scripts/work-items.js:438

    store = await createStateStore({
      dbPath: options.dbPath,
      homeDir: process.env.HOME || os.homedir()
    });

    if (options.command === 'list') {
      const payload = store.listWorkItems({ limit: normalizeLimit(options.limit) });
      if (options.json) {
        console.log(JSON.stringify(payload, null, 2));
      } else {
        printWorkItemList(payload);
      }
      return;
    }

    if (options.command === 'show') {
      const id = resolveWorkItemId(options);
      if (!id) {
        throw new Error('Missing work item id.');
      }
      const item = store.getWorkItemById(id);
      if (!item) {
        throw new Error(`Work item not found: ${id}`);
      }
      if (options.json) {
        console.log(JSON.stringify(item, null, 2));
      } else {
        printWorkItem(item);
      }
      return;
    }

    if (options.command === 'upsert') {
      const id = resolveWorkItemId(options);
      const existing = id ? store.getWorkItemById(id) : null;
      const item = store.upsertWorkItem(buildUpsertPayload(options, existing));
      if (options.json) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Pass the id positionally: `node scripts/work-items.js show my-item`.
2. Or use --id: `node scripts/work-items.js show --id my-item`.
3. If you only know the source id, first run `list` to find the local id.

Example fix

// before
node scripts/work-items.js show

// after
node scripts/work-items.js show refactor-state-store

function ensureShowId(options) {
  const id = options.id || (options.positionals && options.positionals[0]);
  if (!id) throw new Error('show needs <id> or --id <id>');
  return id;
}

function hasWorkItemId(options) {
  return Boolean(options && (options.id || (options.positionals && options.positionals[0])));
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `node scripts/work-items.js show` with no positional id and no --id flag. Passing the id via an unsupported flag (e.g. --source-id) does not count, since resolveWorkItemId only reads options.id and options.positionals[0].

Common situations: Running show with no arguments; assuming --source-id or --url identifies the item; copy-paste that drops the trailing id.

Related errors

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

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1f2b52597bb2b94b. Report an issue: GitHub.