jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

archive search mediatype must be one of ${MEDIATYPES.join(',

Error message

archive search mediatype must be one of ${MEDIATYPES.join(', ')}

What it means

This ArgumentError is thrown before any network call by `archive search` when a `mediatype` argument is supplied but is not one of MEDIATYPES ('texts', 'movies', 'audio', 'software', 'image', 'web', 'data', 'collection'). Unlike sort, no aliasing or lowercasing is applied to mediatype, so case must match exactly. It is purely client-side validation of the filter argument.

Source

Thrown at clis/archive/search.js:36

    description: 'Search Internet Archive items across books, movies, audio, software, and web.',
    domain: 'archive.org',
    strategy: Strategy.PUBLIC,
    browser: false,
    args: [
        { name: 'query', positional: true, required: true, help: 'Full-text query (matches title, description, creator, subject).' },
        { name: 'mediatype', type: 'string', required: false, help: `Restrict to mediatype: ${MEDIATYPES.join(', ')}` },
        { name: 'sort', type: 'string', default: 'downloads', help: `Sort key: ${SORT_OPTIONS.join(', ')}` },
        { name: 'limit', type: 'int', default: 20, help: 'Max items (max 100; one API page).' },
    ],
    columns: ['rank', 'identifier', 'title', 'creator', 'date', 'mediatype', 'downloads', 'url'],
    func: async (args) => {
        const sortRaw = String(args.sort ?? 'downloads').toLowerCase();
        const sort = SORT_ALIAS[sortRaw] ?? sortRaw;
        if (!SORT_OPTIONS.includes(sort)) {
            throw new ArgumentError(`archive search sort must be one of ${SORT_OPTIONS.join(', ')}`);
        }
        if (args.mediatype && !MEDIATYPES.includes(String(args.mediatype))) {
            throw new ArgumentError(`archive search mediatype must be one of ${MEDIATYPES.join(', ')}`);
        }
        const limit = Number(args.limit ?? 20);
        if (!Number.isInteger(limit) || limit <= 0) {
            throw new ArgumentError('archive search limit must be a positive integer');
        }
        if (limit > 100) {
            throw new ArgumentError('archive search limit must be <= 100');
        }

        const query = String(args.query ?? '').trim();
        if (!query) {
            throw new ArgumentError('archive search query must not be empty');
        }

        const fullQuery = args.mediatype
            ? `(${query}) AND mediatype:${args.mediatype}`
            : query;

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Use an exact whitelisted value: texts, movies, audio, software, image, web, data, collection
2. Fix casing — mediatype is matched case-sensitively, so use lowercase plural forms
3. Omit --mediatype to search across all mediatypes

Example fix

// before
opencli archive search "sherlock holmes" --mediatype Books
// after
opencli archive search "sherlock holmes" --mediatype texts

const MEDIATYPES = ['texts','movies','audio','software','image','web','data','collection'];
if (mediatype && !MEDIATYPES.includes(String(mediatype))) {
    throw new Error(`mediatype must be one of ${MEDIATYPES.join(', ')}`);
}

const isMediatype = (m) => ['texts','movies','audio','software','image','web','data','collection'].includes(m);

try {
    rows = await run(['archive', 'search', query, '--mediatype', mediatype]);
} catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof ArgumentError && err.message.includes('mediatype must be one of')) {
        rows = await run(['archive', 'search', query]); // search without mediatype filter
    } else { throw err; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `opencli archive search <query> --mediatype <value>` where <value> is not an exact member of the whitelist — e.g. --mediatype Books, --mediatype text (singular), --mediatype video (not in list), or --mediatype ebooks.

Common situations: Guessing mediatype names ('book', 'movie' singular, 'video'); copying taxonomy labels from the archive.org UI instead of its API enum values; forgetting that the check is case-sensitive so 'Texts' fails.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• archive search sort must be one of ${SORT_OPTIONS.join(', ')
• archive search limit must be a positive integer
• archive search query must not be empty
• archive search limit must be <= 100
• arxiv author cannot be empty

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/13355f20a051baf7. Report an issue: GitHub.