jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

destination is required

Error message

destination is required

What it means

The search command's func reads kwargs.destination, trims it, and throws ArgumentError when the result is empty. A destination is mandatory for every search, so the command fails fast before any date normalization or page navigation. This guards against null/undefined/empty-string/whitespace-only destination values.

Source

Thrown at clis/booking/search.js:241

    { name: 'offset', type: 'int', default: 0, help: 'Result offset for pagination (multiple of 25)' },
  ],
  columns: [
    'rank',
    'name',
    'country',
    'slug',
    'star_rating',
    'review_score',
    'review_count',
    'price_amount',
    'price_currency',
    'distance',
    'recommended_room',
    'url',
  ],
  func: async (page, kwargs) => {
    const destination = String(kwargs.destination || '').trim();
    if (!destination) throw new ArgumentError('destination is required');
    const checkin = normalizeDate(kwargs.checkin, 'checkin');
    const checkout = normalizeDate(kwargs.checkout, 'checkout');
    if (checkin >= checkout) {
      throw new ArgumentError(`checkout (${checkout}) must be after checkin (${checkin})`);
    }
    const adults = normalizePositiveInt(kwargs.adults, 2, 'adults', 30);
    const rooms = normalizePositiveInt(kwargs.rooms, 1, 'rooms', 30);
    const children = normalizeNonNegativeInt(kwargs.children, 0, 'children', 10);
    const currency = normalizeCurrency(kwargs.currency);
    const lang = normalizeLang(kwargs.lang);
    const limit = normalizePositiveInt(kwargs.limit, 25, 'limit', 100);
    const offset = normalizeNonNegativeInt(kwargs.offset, 0, 'offset', 1000);

    const url = buildSearchUrl({ destination, checkin, checkout, adults, rooms, children, offset, currency, lang });

    try {
      await page.goto(url);
    } catch (err) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-empty destination string, e.g. 'Tokyo' or 'Paris, France'
2. Check that the key is exactly 'destination' (no typo, correct casing) in your kwargs/config
3. Trim and validate the value before calling; reject blank/whitespace-only input early in your own code
4. If searches without a destination are legitimate for your use case, this CLI cannot do them — supply at least a city/region

Example fix

// before
await search(page, { checkin: '2026-09-01', checkout: '2026-09-05' });
// after
await search(page, { destination: 'Tokyo', checkin: '2026-09-01', checkout: '2026-09-05' });

function assertDestination(kwargs) {
  const d = String(kwargs.destination ?? '').trim();
  if (!d) throw new Error('destination is required before calling search');
  return d;
}

function hasDestination(kwargs) {
  return typeof kwargs.destination === 'string' && kwargs.destination.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  await search(page, kwargs);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === 'destination is required') {
    throw new Error('Provide a destination (city/region) to search');
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the search tool with destination omitted, null, undefined, '' or ' '; programmatic callers spreading kwargs from an object where destination was never set; form submissions that allow blank destination.

Common situations: Forgotten required field in a wrapper script; a UI allowing 'search anywhere' which this CLI does not support; env/config keys spelled differently (DESTINATION vs destination) yielding undefined; JSON kwargs with a null destination.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

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

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e21903c14a68eb6c. Report an issue: GitHub.