facebook/flow · error

invalid column

Error message

invalid column

What it means

In the autocomplete command's two-argument form [line, column] (no filename, content from stdin), the column argument is parsed with column.parse().expect("invalid column"). A value that is not a valid i32 (letters, empty, out of range) panics with "invalid column" rather than producing a usage error.

Source

Thrown at rust_port/crates/flow_cli/src/autocomplete_command.rs:105

    command_utils::get_file_from_filename_or_stdin(spec().name.as_str(), filename, None)
}

fn parse_args(
    args: Option<Vec<String>>,
) -> (flow_server_utils::file_input::FileInput, Option<(i32, i32)>) {
    match args.as_deref() {
        None | Some([]) => {
            let input = file_input_from_stdin(None);
            extract_cursor(input)
        }
        Some([filename]) => {
            let input = file_input_from_stdin(Some(filename.as_str()));
            extract_cursor(input)
        }
        Some([line, column]) => {
            let cursor = command_utils::convert_input_pos(
                line.parse().expect("invalid line"),
                column.parse().expect("invalid column"),
            );
            let input = file_input_from_stdin(None);
            (input, Some(cursor))
        }
        Some([filename, line, column]) => {
            let cursor = command_utils::convert_input_pos(
                line.parse().expect("invalid line"),
                column.parse().expect("invalid column"),
            );
            let input = file_input_from_stdin(Some(filename.as_str()));
            (input, Some(cursor))
        }
        _ => {
            eprintln!(
                "{}",
                command_spec::command(spec(), |_| {}).string_of_usage()
            );
            flow_common_exit_status::exit(

View on GitHub (pinned to f88ac94bcf)

Solutions

1. Pass a plain 1-based integer for column: flow autocomplete 12 5.
2. Validate that both values are integers before shelling out from integrations or scripts.
3. Check the usage output (run with no args) for the accepted forms.

Example fix

# before: second argument is not an i32
flow autocomplete 12 5.5   # panics: invalid column

# after
flow autocomplete 12 5

# Reject non-integer column values before invoking autocomplete.
case "$2" in ''|*[!0-9-]*) echo "column must be an integer"; exit 2;; esac

When it happens

Trigger: Calling autocomplete with two positional args where the second is not an integer: flow autocomplete 12 5.5, flow autocomplete 12 col, or an empty string from an unset script variable.

Common situations: Editor integrations sending a 0-based/offset or formatted position instead of a plain integer; scripts interpolating unquoted/empty variables; argument-order mixups placing a flag in the column slot.

Related errors

• invalid line
• failed to read stdin
• failed to get current directory
• failed to write json errors
• failed to flush json errors

AI-assisted analysis of facebook/flow@f88ac94bcf (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b86fb7e1685a1d6c. Report an issue: GitHub.