google-gemini/gemini-cli · error

Invalid retention period format: ${period}. Expected format:

Error message

Invalid retention period format: ${period}. Expected format: <number><unit> where unit is h, d, w, or m

What it means

Thrown by parseRetentionPeriod when a retention-period string does not match the regex /^(\d+)([dhwm])$/ — i.e. it is not <digits> followed by exactly one of h/d/w/m. Used by the session cleanup feature to convert human-friendly periods (e.g. 30d, 24h) into milliseconds via MULTIPLIERS.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/utils/sessionCleanup.ts:392

      }
    }

    if (shouldDelete) {
      sessionsToDelete.push(entry);
    }
  }

  return sessionsToDelete;
}

/**
 * Parses retention period strings like "30d", "7d", "24h" into milliseconds
 * @throws {Error} If the format is invalid
 */
function parseRetentionPeriod(period: string): number {
  const match = period.match(/^(\d+)([dhwm])$/);
  if (!match) {
    throw new Error(
      `Invalid retention period format: ${period}. Expected format: <number><unit> where unit is h, d, w, or m`,
    );
  }

  const value = parseInt(match[1], 10);
  const unit = match[2];

  // Reject zero values as they're semantically invalid
  if (value === 0) {
    throw new Error(
      `Invalid retention period: ${period}. Value must be greater than 0`,
    );
  }

  // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unsafe-type-assertion
  return value * MULTIPLIERS[unit as keyof typeof MULTIPLIERS];
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5024443c72)

Solutions

1. Use the exact format <number><unit> with a lowercase unit: h, d, w, or m — e.g. '24h', '30d', '2w', '6m'.
2. Trim/normalize the value before passing it; ensure no surrounding whitespace or quotes.
3. If exposing this in a UI, validate against the same regex and reject invalid input before saving.

Example fix

// before
// retention: '30 days'

// after
// retention: '30d'

function isValidRetentionPeriod(period) {
  return /^(\d+)([dhwm])$/.test(period);
}
// Use before storing/applying the value.
if (!isValidRetentionPeriod(userInput)) {
  throw new Error('Retention must be like 24h, 30d, 2w, or 6m');
}

const isRetentionPeriodString = (v) =>
  typeof v === 'string' && /^(\d+)([dhwm])$/.test(v);

When it happens

Trigger: parseRetentionPeriod(period) receives a string failing the regex: contains letters other than the unit (e.g. '30 days'), wrong unit (e.g. '30s'), non-numeric value (e.g. 'abc'), missing unit (e.g. '30'), extra characters, or whitespace.

Common situations: User sets a cleanup retention config value like '30 days' or '1 month' (full word) instead of '30d'/'1m'. Typos such as '30D' (uppercase not matched) or '30day'. Empty string. Value loaded from a config file with surrounding quotes or whitespace.

Related errors

• Invalid regex pattern in allowedExtensions setting: "${patte
• Invalid retention period: ${period}. Value must be greater t
• Invalid session ID "${trimmed}": Only alphanumeric character
• Invalid approval mode: ${rawApprovalMode}. Valid values are:
• Invalid telemetry configuration: ${err.message}.

AI-assisted analysis of google-gemini/gemini-cli@5024443c72 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/75d0314d1f2f8686. Report an issue: GitHub.