jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

At least one Twitter/X username is required

Error message

At least one Twitter/X username is required

What it means

parseBatchUsernames throws ArgumentError when its input string is empty or only whitespace (String(input || '').trim() yields ''). The follow-batch command requires at least one Twitter/X screen name to act on. This is a usage/argument validation error (ARGUMENT, usage exit code).

Source

Thrown at clis/twitter/follow-batch.js:12

import { ArgumentError, AuthRequiredError, CommandExecutionError } from '@jackwener/opencli/errors';
import { cli, Strategy } from '@jackwener/opencli/registry';
import { unwrapBrowserResult } from './shared.js';

const USERNAME_RE = /^[A-Za-z0-9_]{1,15}$/;
const DEFAULT_DELAY_MS = 3000;
const MAX_DELAY_MS = 60000;

export function parseBatchUsernames(input) {
    const raw = String(input || '').trim();
    if (!raw) {
        throw new ArgumentError('At least one Twitter/X username is required');
    }

    const usernames = [];
    const seen = new Set();
    for (const part of raw.split(',')) {
        const username = part.trim().replace(/^@+/, '');
        if (!username) continue;
        if (!USERNAME_RE.test(username)) {
            throw new ArgumentError(`Invalid Twitter/X username: ${JSON.stringify(part.trim())}`);
        }
        const key = username.toLowerCase();
        if (seen.has(key)) continue;
        seen.add(key);
        usernames.push(username);
    }

    if (!usernames.length) {
        throw new ArgumentError('At least one Twitter/X username is required');

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Pass at least one username: `opencli twitter follow-batch '@alice'` or comma-separated '@alice,@bob'.
2. If sourcing from a variable/file, check it is non-empty before invoking (e.g. [ -n "$USERS" ] || exit 1).
3. Quote the variable ("$USERS") so the shell passes it correctly even when it contains commas/spaces.

Example fix

// before
await cli({ usernames: process.env.USERS }) // USERS unset -> ''
// after
if (!process.env.USERS) throw new Error('USERS env var required');
await cli({ usernames: process.env.USERS })

function requireUsernames(input) {
  const raw = String(input ?? '').trim();
  if (!raw) throw new Error('usernames: at least one Twitter/X screen name is required');
  return raw;
}
// in shell: [ -n "$USERS" ] || { echo 'USERS required' >&2; exit 1; }

function hasUsernames(v) {
  return typeof v === 'string' && v.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  await followBatch(usernames);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.code === 'ARGUMENT') {
    console.error('Usage: twitter follow-batch <@user1,@user2> [--delay-ms N]');
    process.exitCode = 2;
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `twitter follow-batch` without the required positional `usernames` argument; passing an empty string (usernames: '') or whitespace-only string; passing null/undefined programmatically (|| '' collapses falsy values).

Common situations: Shell quoting mistakes that drop the positional arg (e.g. an unexpanded empty variable $USERS); scripting the CLI and forgetting the argument; calling the exported function directly with an optional/undefined value.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• delay-ms must be an integer between 0 and ${MAX_DELAY_MS}
• twitter mute-word keyword cannot be empty
• <train-no> must not be empty
• station must not be empty
• ${label} cannot be empty

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6e5230065e54ac37. Report an issue: GitHub.