What causes "--limit must be an integer between 1 and 200" in jackwener/OpenCLI?

Pass an integer between 1 and 200, e.g. --limit 50.

jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

--limit must be an integer between 1 and 200

Error message

--limit must be an integer between 1 and 200

What it means

normalizeLimit in utils.js throws an ArgumentError when the --limit value is not an integer in the inclusive range 1-200. The limit caps how many activity items are returned; values outside the band (including NaN from non-numeric input) are rejected.

Source

Thrown at clis/trae-cn/utils.js:40

  'Set-Content',
  'Out-File',
  'mkfs',
  'git force/delete/hard/filter/rebase operations',
  'destructive database commands',
];

export function normalizeTimeout(value, fallback = 60) {
  const timeout = value === undefined || value === null ? fallback : Number(value);
  if (!Number.isInteger(timeout) || timeout < 1) {
    throw new ArgumentError('--timeout must be a positive integer (seconds)');
  }
  return timeout;
}

export function normalizeLimit(value, fallback = 20) {
  const limit = value === undefined || value === null ? fallback : Number(value);
  if (!Number.isInteger(limit) || limit < 1 || limit > 200) {
    throw new ArgumentError('--limit must be an integer between 1 and 200');
  }
  return limit;
}

export function normalizeMaxChars(value, fallback = 6000) {
  const maxChars = value === undefined || value === null ? fallback : Number(value);
  if (!Number.isInteger(maxChars) || maxChars < 0 || maxChars > 1_000_000) {
    throw new ArgumentError('--max-chars must be an integer between 0 and 1000000');
  }
  return maxChars;
}

export function normalizeDuration(value, fallback = 30) {
  const duration = value === undefined || value === null ? fallback : Number(value);
  if (!Number.isInteger(duration) || duration < 1 || duration > 3600) {
    throw new ArgumentError('--duration must be an integer between 1 and 3600 seconds');
  }
  return duration;

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

Pass an integer between 1 and 200, e.g. --limit 50.
Omit --limit to use the default of 20.
Clamp large values to 200 in your script before passing.
Guard against empty variables: --limit "${LIMIT:-20}".

Example fix

// before
opencli trae-cn activity --limit 500
// after
opencli trae-cn activity --limit 200

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function assertLimit(v, fallback = 20) {
  const n = v === undefined || v === null ? fallback : Number(v);
  if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < 1 || n > 200) throw new Error(`Invalid --limit: ${JSON.stringify(v)}; must be an integer 1-200`);
  return n;
}

Type guard

function isValidLimit(v) {
  return v === undefined || v === null ||
    (Number.isInteger(Number(v)) && Number(v) >= 1 && Number(v) <= 200);
}

Try / catch

try {
  return await listActivities(limit);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && e.message.includes('--limit')) {
    return listActivities(Math.min(Math.max(Number(limit) || 20, 1), 200));
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Clamp requested limits to [1, 200] before passing.
Never use 0 or huge values to mean 'all' — use the max 200.
Default to omitting --limit when the default 20 suffices.
Guard empty shell variables with ${LIMIT:-20}.

When it happens

Trigger: Running a command with `--limit 0`, `--limit 201`, `--limit -1`, `--limit 10.5`, or non-numeric strings like `--limit all`.

Common situations: Trying to fetch 'everything' with --limit 0 or a huge number like 99999; unit tests hardcoding boundary values; scripts passing empty variables (Number('') === 0).

Understand the failure class

Background: "Unknown argument", "Invalid value", and "must be one of": invalid CLI argument errors explained — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/464ecec3b81f63a3. Report an issue: GitHub.