chatboxai/chatbox · warning · ChatboxCliUsageError

--style must be vivid or natural.

Error message

--style must be vivid or natural.

What it means

ChatboxCliUsageError thrown when --style is provided but is neither 'vivid' nor 'natural'. These are the only two supported DALL-E style modes; any other value (including typos and localized variants) is rejected before provider resolution.

Source

Thrown at src/renderer/packages/chatbox-cli/images.ts:169

  return promise
}

async function generateImage(context: ChatboxCliCommandContext): Promise<Record<string, unknown>> {
  if (!context.sessionId) throw new ChatboxCliUsageError('Image generation requires an active chat session.')
  if (!context.toolCallId) throw new ChatboxCliUsageError('Image generation requires a tool call id.')
  const sessionId = context.sessionId
  const toolCallId = context.toolCallId
  const requestedPrompt = stringFlag(context.parsed, 'prompt') ?? context.parsed.positionals.join(' ').trim()
  if (!requestedPrompt) throw new ChatboxCliUsageError('Missing --prompt.')
  if (requestedPrompt.length > 8_000) throw new ChatboxCliUsageError('Prompt must be at most 8000 characters.')

  const requestedProvider = stringFlag(context.parsed, 'provider')
  const requestedModelId = stringFlag(context.parsed, 'model')
  const requestedCount = integerFlag(context.parsed, 'count', { defaultValue: 1, min: 1, max: 4 })
  const requestedAspectRatio = stringFlag(context.parsed, 'aspect-ratio')
  const requestedStyle = stringFlag(context.parsed, 'style')
  if (requestedStyle && requestedStyle !== 'vivid' && requestedStyle !== 'natural') {
    throw new ChatboxCliUsageError('--style must be vivid or natural.')
  }
  const parsedStyle: 'vivid' | 'natural' | undefined =
    requestedStyle === 'vivid' || requestedStyle === 'natural' ? requestedStyle : undefined
  const approvedRequest =
    context.approved && context.approvalDetails?.type === 'image_generation' ? context.approvalDetails : undefined
  if (
    approvedRequest &&
    (approvedRequest.prompt !== requestedPrompt ||
      approvedRequest.count !== requestedCount ||
      approvedRequest.aspectRatio !== requestedAspectRatio ||
      approvedRequest.style !== parsedStyle ||
      (requestedProvider !== undefined && approvedRequest.provider !== requestedProvider) ||
      (requestedModelId !== undefined && approvedRequest.modelId !== requestedModelId))
  ) {
    throw new Error('The image request changed after approval. Ask the user to review it again.')
  }

  const prompt = approvedRequest?.prompt ?? requestedPrompt

View on GitHub (pinned to 81571269ad)

Solutions

1. Use exactly 'vivid' or 'natural', or omit --style to accept the provider default.
2. Constrain the caller's UI to a fixed list of the two valid values.
3. Normalize/validate the style value before dispatching and prompt the user if invalid.

Example fix

// before
await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['image','generate','--prompt', p, '--style','realistic'] }, ctx)

// after
const style = userInput === 'vivid' || userInput === 'natural' ? ['--style', userInput] : []
await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv: ['image','generate','--prompt', p, ...style] }, ctx)

const VALID_STYLES = new Set(['vivid', 'natural'])
const style = typeof rawStyle === 'string' ? rawStyle : undefined
if (style !== undefined && !VALID_STYLES.has(style)) {
  return { error: '--style must be vivid or natural', kind: 'usage' }
}
const argv = ['image','generate','--prompt', prompt]
if (style) argv.push('--style', style)
await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv }, ctx)

function isImageStyle(input: unknown): input is 'vivid' | 'natural' {
  return input === 'vivid' || input === 'natural'
}

const res = await executeChatboxCliCommand({ argv }, ctx)
if (!res.ok && res.kind === 'usage' && res.error.includes('--style')) {
  // correct the style value and retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --style with an unsupported value such as 'realistic', 'photo', or a misspelling like 'natrual'.

Common situations: An LLM hallucinating a style name, a UI dropdown exposing free text instead of the two options, or locale-translated values passed verbatim.

Related errors

• Image generation requires an active chat session.
• Missing --prompt.
• Image model is not available: ${provider}/${modelId}. Use "c
• Missing image generation record id.
• Missing search query.

AI-assisted analysis of chatboxai/chatbox@81571269ad (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2a398a0d5ebbab79. Report an issue: GitHub.