jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

${label} is required

Error message

${label} is required

What it means

normalizeRequiredString normalizes a required text option (bookTarget/query) via normalizeSearchText and throws ArgumentError when the normalized result is empty. It means a mandatory input was missing, null, or whitespace-only after trimming.

Source

Thrown at clis/weread/book-search.js:54

function parseOptionalFiniteNumber(value) {
    if (value == null || value === '')
        return null;
    const n = Number(value);
    return Number.isFinite(n) ? n : null;
}

function parseHasMore(value) {
    if (value === true || value === 1 || value === '1')
        return true;
    if (value === false || value === 0 || value === '0')
        return false;
    return null;
}

function normalizeRequiredString(value, label) {
    const text = normalizeSearchText(value);
    if (!text) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`${label} is required`);
    }
    return text;
}

function parseWereadReaderUrl(value) {
    let url;
    try {
        url = new URL(String(value || ''), WEREAD_WEB_ORIGIN);
    }
    catch {
        return '';
    }
    const pathParts = url.pathname.split('/').filter(Boolean);
    if (url.protocol !== 'https:' || url.hostname !== 'weread.qq.com' || pathParts[0] !== 'web' || pathParts[1] !== 'reader' || !pathParts[2]) {
        return '';
    }
    if (pathParts.length !== 3) {
        return '';

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Provide a non-empty value for the labeled argument
2. Check for unset shell variables: use "${QUERY:?QUERY is required}" before invoking
3. Trim is not enough — pass real search text, not whitespace
4. Add an early check in your wrapper script before calling the CLI

Example fix

// before
QUERY="" weread book-search --query "$QUERY"
// after
QUERY="zen and the art" weread book-search --query "$QUERY"

const query = (process.env.QUERY ?? '').trim();
if (!query) {
  console.error('QUERY is required and must be non-empty');
  process.exit(2);
}

const isNonEmptyString = (v) => typeof v === 'string' && v.trim().length > 0;

try {
  await runCommand(['book-search', '--query', query]);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && e.message.includes('is required')) {
    console.error('Missing required argument: ' + e.message); process.exitCode = 2;
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running the command without the required --query (or book target) argument, or passing '' or ' ' — normalizeSearchText strips whitespace and falsy/empty results throw.

Common situations: Shell variables are unset or empty ($QUERY expands to nothing), quoting drops the argument, scripts forward an optional flag as an empty string, or users forget the positional argument.

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

• INVALID_ARGUMENT
• INVALID_ARGUMENT
• Collection name cannot be empty
• ${label} must be a positive integer
• ${label} must be an integer >= ${min}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3b7c00b6d746684. Report an issue: GitHub.