affaan-m/ECC · error

Unknown argument: ${arg}

Error message

Unknown argument: ${arg}

What it means

The CLI argument parser in harness-audit.js only recognizes --help/-h, --format (and --format=), --scope (and --scope=), --root (and --root=), plus a bare scope token. Any other token that begins with '-' is treated as an unsupported flag and rejected outright. The tool will not guess or ignore unknown flags.

Source

Thrown at scripts/harness-audit.js:121

    }

    if (arg.startsWith('--format=')) {
      parsed.format = arg.split('=')[1].toLowerCase();
      continue;
    }

    if (arg.startsWith('--scope=')) {
      parsed.scope = normalizeScope(arg.split('=')[1]);
      continue;
    }

    if (arg.startsWith('--root=')) {
      parsed.root = path.resolve(arg.slice('--root='.length));
      continue;
    }

    if (arg.startsWith('-')) {
      throw new Error(`Unknown argument: ${arg}`);
    }

    parsed.scope = normalizeScope(arg);
  }

  if (!['text', 'json'].includes(parsed.format)) {
    throw new Error(`Invalid format: ${parsed.format}. Use text or json.`);
  }

  return parsed;
}

function fileExists(rootDir, relativePath) {
  return fs.existsSync(path.join(rootDir, relativePath));
}

function readText(rootDir, relativePath) {
  return fs.readFileSync(path.join(rootDir, relativePath), 'utf8');

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Run node scripts/harness-audit.js --help to see the accepted flag set
2. Remove the unrecognized flag from the command line
3. For machine-readable output use --format=json (there is no --json flag here)

Example fix

// before
node scripts/harness-audit.js --json
// after
node scripts/harness-audit.js --format=json

const KNOWN = new Set(['--help','-h','--format','--scope','--root']);
const startsKnown = (a) => a.startsWith('--format=') || a.startsWith('--scope=') || a.startsWith('--root=');
for (const a of argv) {
  if (a.startsWith('-') && !KNOWN.has(a) && !startsKnown(a)) {
    throw new Error(`Unsupported harness-audit flag: ${a}`);
  }
}

function isKnownHarnessAuditFlag(arg) {
  if (!arg.startsWith('-')) return true; // bare scope token
  return ['--help','-h','--format','--scope','--root'].includes(arg)
    || arg.startsWith('--format=')
    || arg.startsWith('--scope=')
    || arg.startsWith('--root=');
}

try { main(); }
catch (err) {
  if (/^Unknown argument:/.test(err.message)) {
    console.error(`${err.message}\nRun: node scripts/harness-audit.js --help`);
    process.exit(2);
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --json (which is valid in install-plan.js but NOT here), --verbose, -v, --output report.txt, or a typo such as --scpoe=repo. Also triggered by flags copied from a different ECC subcommand.

Common situations: Copying flags from another ECC script's help text, using an outdated flag renamed in a newer version, or a shell autocomplete inserting the wrong option.

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/b90902cff8ea18d2. Report an issue: GitHub.