affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

Unknown argument: ${arg}

Error message

Unknown argument: ${arg}

What it means

Thrown by sessions-cli.js parseArgs when a token is not an accepted flag (--db, --json, --limit, --help/-h) and is not the first bare positional (which is captured as the session id). Any second positional, or any unknown flag, is rejected.

Source

Thrown at scripts/sessions-cli.js:43

  };

  for (let index = 0; index < args.length; index += 1) {
    const arg = args[index];

    if (arg === '--db') {
      parsed.dbPath = args[index + 1] || null;
      index += 1;
    } else if (arg === '--json') {
      parsed.json = true;
    } else if (arg === '--limit') {
      parsed.limit = args[index + 1] || null;
      index += 1;
    } else if (arg === '--help' || arg === '-h') {
      parsed.help = true;
    } else if (!arg.startsWith('--') && !parsed.sessionId) {
      parsed.sessionId = arg;
    } else {
      throw new Error(`Unknown argument: ${arg}`);
    }
  }

  return parsed;
}

function printSessionList(payload) {
  console.log('Recent sessions:\n');

  if (payload.sessions.length === 0) {
    console.log('No sessions found.');
    return;
  }

  for (const session of payload.sessions) {
    console.log(`- ${session.id} [${session.harness}/${session.adapterId}] ${session.state}`);
    console.log(`  Repo: ${session.repoRoot || '(unknown)'}`);
    console.log(`  Started: ${session.startedAt || '(unknown)'}`);

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Pass at most one positional session id.
2. Run `node scripts/sessions-cli.js --help` to confirm accepted flags.
3. Quote ids that contain spaces or special characters.
4. Move --json / --limit before the positional id to keep the command unambiguous.

Example fix

# before
node scripts/sessions-cli.js abc123 def456 --json
# after
node scripts/sessions-cli.js --json abc123

const ALLOWED = new Set(['--db', '--json', '--limit', '--help', '-h']);
const tokens = process.argv.slice(2);
const unknown = tokens.filter(t => t.startsWith('--') && !ALLOWED.has(t));
const positionals = tokens.filter(t => !t.startsWith('--'));
if (unknown.length || positionals.length > 1) { console.error('Bad sessions-cli invocation'); process.exit(2); }

try { parseArgs(process.argv); } catch (err) { console.error(err.message); process.exit(2); }

When it happens

Trigger: Passing two session ids, a flag from another script (e.g. --format), or a typo like `--limt`. The first non-`--` token becomes the session id and a second one triggers the error.

Common situations: Pasting a session id with a trailing path; combining sessions-cli flags with setup.js flags; passing --json before the id in a way that leaves a stray token.

Related errors

• --write requires a path
• Unknown argument: ${arg}
• Invalid ${flag}: expected a single cache path segment
• Unknown argument: ${arg}
• Missing value for ${arg}

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/37cd53e5b8851a4a. Report an issue: GitHub.