--max-tokens-budget must be a non-negative integer (0 means

Error message

--max-tokens-budget must be a non-negative integer (0 means unlimited)

What it means

This validation error is thrown by validateReviewOptions in cmd/opencodereview/shared_flags.go when the --max-tokens-budget flag is given a negative integer. The library requires that this flag be a non-negative integer; 0 has special meaning (unlimited budget), while any positive value caps the total token spend of the review run. Negative values indicate a configuration mistake, so the CLI rejects the run before doing any work.

Source

Thrown at cmd/opencodereview/shared_flags.go:154

		return err
	}
	opts.outputFormat = normalizedFormat
	const minMaxTools = 50
	if opts.maxTools < 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("--max-tools must be a non-negative integer (0 means use template default)")
	}
	if opts.maxTools > 0 && opts.maxTools < minMaxTools {
		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "[ocr] --max-tools %d is below minimum %d, using %d\n", opts.maxTools, minMaxTools, minMaxTools)
		opts.maxTools = minMaxTools
	}
	if opts.maxGitProcs < 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("--max-git-procs must be a non-negative integer (0 means use default 16)")
	}
	if opts.maxTokens < 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("--max-tokens must be a non-negative integer (0 means use configured or template default)")
	}
	if opts.maxTokensBudget < 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("--max-tokens-budget must be a non-negative integer (0 means unlimited)")
	}
	if opts.effort != "" {
		if _, err := template.ParseEffort(opts.effort); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("--effort: %w", err)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func validateScanOptions(opts *scanOptions) error {
	if err := validateAudience(opts.audience); err != nil {
		return err
	}
	normalizedFormat, err := validateOutputFormat(opts.outputFormat)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	opts.outputFormat = normalizedFormat

View on GitHub (pinned to 5cf97d0d15)

Solutions

Pass 0 instead of a negative number if you want an unlimited budget
Set a positive integer token budget, e.g. --max-tokens-budget 100000
Fix the script or environment variable that computed the negative value

Example fix

// before
ocr review --max-tokens-budget -500
// after
ocr review --max-tokens-budget 0   # unlimited, or a positive integer like 100000

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if [ "$MAX_TOKENS_BUDGET" -lt 0 ]; then MAX_TOKENS_BUDGET=0; fi
ocr review --max-tokens-budget "$MAX_TOKENS_BUDGET"

Type guard

func validBudget(n int) bool { return n >= 0 }

Prevention

Clamp computed budgets with a lower bound of 0 before passing the flag
Remember the convention: 0 = unlimited, never use negative numbers
Add a shell wrapper that validates numeric flags before invoking the CLI

When it happens

Trigger: Running `ocr review --max-tokens-budget -1` (or any negative value). The flag is parsed into opts.maxTokensBudget by registerReviewFlags, then validateReviewOptions rejects negatives at line 153 before the pipeline starts.

Common situations: Scripts that compute a budget programmatically and produce a negative result (e.g. subtracting consumed tokens from a quota that is already exhausted); shell variables that are empty and expand to a bare '-' sign; typo'd hand-typed flags.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/open-code-review@5cf97d0d15 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b5aa0d3b9754a319. Report an issue: GitHub.