can1357/oh-my-pi · error · Error

unknown option: ${arg}

Error message

unknown option: ${arg}

What it means

parseArgs' switch has no case for the given token, so any unrecognized flag (anything not consumed by the known cases, including flags that must not start with '-' in value position) throws this error.

Source

Thrown at packages/metaharness/src/tb/cli.ts:196

			}
			case "--rebuild-agent":
				config.rebuildAgent = true;
				break;
			case "--vmon-url":
				config.vmonUrl = take();
				break;
			case "--vmon-token":
				config.vmonToken = take();
				break;
			case "--list":
				config.list = true;
				break;
			case "-h":
			case "--help":
				config.help = true;
				break;
			default:
				throw new Error(`unknown option: ${arg}`);
		}
	}

	if (config.help) return config;
	if (config.models.length === 0) throw new Error("at least one --model is required");
	for (const model of config.models) {
		const slash = model.indexOf("/");
		if (slash <= 0 || slash === model.length - 1) throw new Error(`invalid model ${model}; expected provider/model`);
	}
	for (const [flag, value] of [
		["--attempts", config.attempts],
		["--concurrency", config.concurrency],
		["--epochs", config.epochs],
	] as const) {
		if (!Number.isInteger(value) || value < 1) throw new Error(`${flag} must be a positive integer`);
	}
	if (config.budget !== null && (!Number.isFinite(config.budget) || config.budget < 0)) {
		throw new Error("--budget must be a non-negative number");

View on GitHub (pinned to 9690622007)

Solutions

1. Run `tb --help` and use only documented flags
2. Check for renames (e.g. --epoch vs --epochs)
3. Quote or reorder arguments so option values don't look like flags

Example fix

// before
$ tb --dry-run --model x/y
// after
$ tb --model x/y   # --dry-run is not supported; see tb --help

const KNOWN = new Set(["-m","--model","--attempts","--concurrency","--epochs","--budget","--gateway-url","--gateway-token","--openrouter-variant","--rebuild-agent","-h","--help"]);
const unknown = args.filter((a, i) => a.startsWith("-") && !KNOWN.has(a));
if (unknown.length) console.warn("unknown flags:", unknown);

try {
  config = parseArgs(args);
} catch (err) {
  if (String(err.message).startsWith("unknown option:")) {
    console.error(`${err.message} — run 'tb --help' for supported flags`);
    process.exit(2);
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a flag the CLI does not define (e.g. --verbose, --epochs=2 misspelled as --epoch), or a stray '-'-prefixed token left where an option value was expected after a previous take() consumed the wrong token.

Common situations: Renamed flags across metaharness versions (old scripts using removed flags); muscle-memory flags from other CLIs (--dry-run); accidentally passing a negative number or dash-prefixed token as a value.

Related errors

• missing value for ${flag}
• missing value for ${arg}
• missing operand
• Expected --${name} to be a positive integer, got ${value}
• Cache flags require --cache

AI-assisted analysis of can1357/oh-my-pi@9690622007 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/24f8f4d11ed2d8ae. Report an issue: GitHub.