affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

--write requires --json or --markdown

Error message

--write requires --json or --markdown

What it means

Thrown by scripts/status.js during output dispatch (after the state store has been queried) when --write was supplied but neither --json nor --markdown was selected. --write persists the rendered machine format to disk, and the human-readable console output (the default branch) is not a stable format worth writing to a file, so the combination is rejected. Unlike the parse-time errors, this fires late, after the database query succeeds.

Source

Thrown at scripts/status.js:470

      }),
    };
    payload.githubCoordination = summarizeGithubCoordination(payload.workItems);

    if (options.json) {
      const output = `${JSON.stringify(payload, null, 2)}\n`;
      if (options.writePath) {
        writeOutput(options.writePath, output);
      }
      process.stdout.write(output);
    } else if (options.markdown) {
      const output = renderMarkdown(payload);
      if (options.writePath) {
        writeOutput(options.writePath, output);
      }
      process.stdout.write(output);
    } else {
      if (options.writePath) {
        throw new Error('--write requires --json or --markdown');
      }
      printHuman(payload);
    }

    if (options.exitCode && payload.readiness.status !== 'ok') {
      process.exitCode = 2;
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(`Error: ${error.message}`);
    process.exit(1);
  } finally {
    if (store) {
      store.close();
    }
  }
}

if (require.main === module) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Add --json or --markdown alongside --write: `node scripts/status.js --markdown --write status.md`.
2. If you only want on-screen human output, remove --write.
3. Restructure the wrapper so the format flag and --write are set together in the same conditional branch.

Example fix

// before
node scripts/status.js --write /tmp/status.txt

// after
node scripts/status.js --json --write /tmp/status.json

// Enforce: --write only when a format flag is also present
function buildStatusArgs(opts) {
  const args = [];
  if (opts.format === 'json' || opts.format === 'markdown') {
    args.push(`--${opts.format}`);
  } else {
    return args; // human mode, no --write allowed
  }
  if (opts.outFile) args.push('--write', opts.outFile);
  return args;
}

When it happens

Trigger: `node scripts/status.js --write report.txt` with no format flag; a wrapper that always sets --write but only conditionally sets --json/--markdown and hits the branch where neither is set.

Common situations: Assuming --write implies a default format; migrating a command that previously wrote human text to a file; a script that builds flags in separate conditionals and the format flag was skipped.

Related errors

• Choose only one output format: --json or --markdown
• Missing value for --write
• Agents directory not found: ${dirPath}
• Expected a directory: ${dirPath}
• Invalid format: ${parsed.format}. Use text or json.

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/23f24c791b4d4656. Report an issue: GitHub.