jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

${label} must reference a non-empty file: ${ref.value}

Error message

${label} must reference a non-empty file: ${ref.value}

What it means

After fs.stat succeeds, the validator requires the reference to be a regular file (stat.isFile()) with size > 0. This ArgumentError is thrown for directories, special files (fifos/devices), and zero-byte files, since Midjourney cannot consume empty or non-file uploads.

Source

Thrown at clis/midjourney/utils.js:912

      } catch (error) {
        if (error instanceof ArgumentError) throw error;
      }
      return { kind: 'url', value: item };
    }
    const expanded = item === '~' ? os.homedir() : item.startsWith('~/') ? path.join(os.homedir(), item.slice(2)) : item;
    return { kind: 'local', value: path.resolve(expanded) };
  });
}

export async function validateLocalReferences(refs, label) {
  for (const ref of refs.filter((item) => item.kind === 'local')) {
    let stat;
    try {
      stat = await fs.stat(ref.value);
    } catch {
      throw new ArgumentError(`${label} file does not exist: ${ref.value}`);
    }
    if (!stat.isFile() || stat.size <= 0) throw new ArgumentError(`${label} must reference a non-empty file: ${ref.value}`);
    if (stat.size > MAX_REFERENCE_BYTES) throw new ArgumentError(`${label} exceeds Midjourney's 10MB upload limit: ${ref.value}`);
    const ext = path.extname(ref.value).toLowerCase();
    if (!IMAGE_EXTENSIONS.has(ext)) throw new ArgumentError(`${label} must be PNG, JPEG, WEBP, or GIF: ${ref.value}`);
  }
  return refs;
}

async function visibleImageSources(page) {
  const payload = unwrapEvaluateResult(await page.evaluate(() => [...document.querySelectorAll('img[src]')]
    .filter((img) => {
      const rect = img.getBoundingClientRect();
      let card = img.parentElement;
      while (card && !String(card.className).includes('group/img')) card = card.parentElement;
      return Boolean(card) && rect.width > 24 && rect.height > 24 && /cdn\.midjourney\.com\/u\//.test(img.src);
    })
    .map((img) => img.src)));
  return Array.isArray(payload) ? payload.map(String) : [];
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Point the reference at an actual image file, not a directory or special file
2. Check size (ls -l / stat) and re-export/re-download if the file is 0 bytes
3. Fix the upstream step that produced the empty file

Example fix

// before
--refs ./images/               // directory
--refs ./broken-download.png   // 0 bytes
// after
--refs ./images/cat.png        // real, non-empty file

const s = await fs.stat(p);
if (!s.isFile() || s.size <= 0) throw new Error(`${p} is not a non-empty regular file`);

const isNonEmptyFile = async (p) => { try { const s = await fs.stat(p); return s.isFile() && s.size > 0; } catch { return false; } };

try {
  await validateLocalReferences(refs, 'refs');
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes('must reference a non-empty file')) {
    console.error('Re-generate or re-download the file:', e.message);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a directory as a reference, passing a 0-byte file left by a failed download or touch, or passing a fifo/socket/device path.

Common situations: An earlier download step failed leaving a 0-byte placeholder, pipelines creating empty output files on error, users passing a folder expecting the tool to pick images from it.

Understand the failure class

Background: "File not found" and ENOENT errors: why libraries can't find a file that should exist — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

• File not found: ${path}
• File must be a readable text file: ${path}
• Video file is empty: ${filePath}
• 视频文件不存在: ${videoPath}
• Video file not found: ${resolved}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/04eb69d6b11466f0. Report an issue: GitHub.