charmbracelet/gum · info

not submitted

Error message

not submitted

What it means

gum input's Run prints the entered text only when the model's `submitted` flag is true, which is set when the user confirms with Enter. If the input was aborted (Esc or Ctrl+C), the program ends normally but nothing was submitted, so Run returns `errors.New("not submitted")`. It is a control-flow signal meaning "user cancelled", not an internal failure.

Source

Thrown at input/command.go:77

		keymap:      defaultKeymap(),
	}

	ctx, cancel := timeout.Context(o.Timeout)
	defer cancel()

	p := tea.NewProgram(
		m,
		tea.WithOutput(os.Stderr),
		tea.WithContext(ctx),
	)
	tm, err := p.Run()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to run input: %w", err)
	}

	m = tm.(model)
	if !m.submitted {
		return errors.New("not submitted")
	}
	fmt.Println(m.textinput.Value())
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4d089f9550)

Solutions

1. Handle the non-zero exit as an expected cancellation path: check the exit status in the calling script and branch on it.
2. Tell users to press Enter instead of Esc/Ctrl+C to confirm the input.
3. Provide a default value with `--placeholder`/`--value` so Enter-only workflows complete without typing.
4. If you need to distinguish cancellation from real failures, match on the message `not submitted` in Go code or on the exit code in shell.

Example fix

// before
value, err := cmd.Output() // treats cancel as unexpected failure
if err != nil { return err }
// after (shell)
value=$(gum input --placeholder "Name") || { echo "cancelled"; exit 0; }

if ! value=$(gum input --placeholder "Name"); then
  # exit code 1 = user cancelled ("not submitted")
  echo "input cancelled" >&2
  exit 0
fi

When it happens

Trigger: User presses Esc or Ctrl+C inside the `gum input` prompt, causing the Bubble Tea program to quit with submitted=false.

Common situations: Users aborting a prompt in interactive scripts; automation driving gum via synthesized key events that send Esc/Ctrl+C; scripts that treat any non-zero exit as a bug when it is just cancellation.

Related errors

• unable to run filter: %w
• not submitted
• nothing selected
• unable to pick selection: %w
• no file selected

AI-assisted analysis of charmbracelet/gum@4d089f9550 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ea057e9c08d360c3. Report an issue: GitHub.