jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

crates crate name is required (e.g. "serde", "tokio")

Error message

crates crate name is required (e.g. "serde", "tokio")

What it means

requireCrateName enforces that a crate name is present before validating its format; empty values get this dedicated message with examples ('serde', 'tokio'). It exists so the common 'forgot the name' case produces a more helpful error than the format-failure message.

Source

Thrown at clis/crates/utils.js:18

// Shared helpers for the crates.io adapters.
import { ArgumentError, CommandExecutionError, EmptyResultError } from '@jackwener/opencli/errors';

export const CRATES_BASE = 'https://crates.io';
const UA = 'opencli-crates-adapter (+https://github.com/jackwener/opencli)';

// crates.io crate names: 1-64 chars, ascii letters/digits/-_, must start with a letter.
const CRATE_NAME = /^[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_-]{0,63}$/;

export function requireString(value, label) {
    const s = String(value ?? '').trim();
    if (!s) throw new ArgumentError(`crates ${label} cannot be empty`);
    return s;
}

export function requireCrateName(value) {
    const s = String(value ?? '').trim();
    if (!s) throw new ArgumentError('crates crate name is required (e.g. "serde", "tokio")');
    if (!CRATE_NAME.test(s)) {
        throw new ArgumentError(
            `crates crate name "${value}" is not a valid crates.io name`,
            'Names start with an ASCII letter, then 0-63 chars of letters / digits / "_-".',
        );
    }
    return s;
}

export function requireBoundedInt(value, defaultValue, maxValue, label = 'limit') {
    const raw = value ?? defaultValue;
    const n = typeof raw === 'number' ? raw : Number(raw);
    if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n <= 0) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`crates ${label} must be a positive integer`);
    }
    if (n > maxValue) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`crates ${label} must be <= ${maxValue}`);
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Pass a crate name, e.g. `crates crate serde`.
2. In scripts, default or assert the variable before calling: if (!name) fail fast.
3. Use `crates search <keyword>` first if you do not know the exact name.
4. Wrap calls in a try/catch on ArgumentError to surface usage help.

Example fix

// before
await cli.crates.crate({ name: undefined });
// after
await cli.crates.crate({ name: 'tokio' });

function requireName(value) {
  const s = String(value ?? '').trim();
  if (!s) throw new Error('crate name is required (e.g. "serde", "tokio")');
  return s;
}

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

try {
  await cli.crates.crate({ name });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && e.message.includes('crate name is required')) {
    console.error('Usage: crates crate <name>');
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `crates crate` (or anything that calls requireCrateName) with name === '', ' ', null, or undefined — typically when the positional/flag argument was omitted entirely.

Common situations: Running the CLI interactively and forgetting the crate argument, scripting with an unset variable, or a wrapper passing undefined when a lookup fails.

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

• <train-no> must not be empty
• keyword must not be empty
• <from> station must not be empty
• <to> station must not be empty
• who 不能为空

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2a712c5ebc5f4c3e. Report an issue: GitHub.