jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

lobsters limit must be <= ${maxValue}

Error message

lobsters limit must be <= ${maxValue}

What it means

Thrown by requireBoundedInt() when the parsed limit is a positive integer but exceeds maxValue, the API's configured upper bound. The library enforces this locally so clients never send a request that Lobste.rs would reject or that would be wasteful.

Source

Thrown at clis/lobsters/domain.js:30

function requireDomain(value) {
    const s = String(value ?? '').trim().toLowerCase();
    if (!s) {
        throw new ArgumentError('lobsters domain is required (e.g. "github.com" or "arxiv.org")');
    }
    if (!DOMAIN_PATTERN.test(s)) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`lobsters domain "${value}" is not a valid hostname`);
    }
    return s;
}

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

cli({
    site: 'lobsters',
    name: 'domain',
    access: 'read',
    description: 'Lobste.rs stories submitted from a specific domain',
    domain: 'lobste.rs',
    strategy: Strategy.PUBLIC,
    browser: false,
    args: [
        { name: 'domain', positional: true, required: true, help: 'Source domain (e.g. github.com, arxiv.org, blog.cloudflare.com)' },
        { name: 'limit', type: 'int', default: 20, help: 'Number of stories (1-25 — single page)' },
    ],
    columns: ['rank', 'id', 'title', 'score', 'author', 'comments', 'created_at', 'tags', 'submission_url', 'comments_url'],
    func: async (args) => {

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Lower the limit to the allowed max (the error message states the exact bound, e.g. `<= 100`)
2. Clamp before calling: Math.min(requested, maxValue)
3. Update hardcoded configs/scripts that still use old, larger limits
4. Consult the CLI docs for the current maximum allowed limit

Example fix

// before
await cli.limit(1000); // max is 100
// after
await cli.limit(Math.min(1000, 100));

const MAX_LIMIT = 100; // check library docs for the exact bound
const n = Number.parseInt(rawLimit, 10);
await cli.limit(Number.isInteger(n) && n > 0 ? Math.min(n, MAX_LIMIT) : undefined);

function isInBoundedRange(v, maxValue) {
  return typeof v === 'number' && Number.isInteger(v) && v > 0 && v <= maxValue;
}

try {
  await cli.limit(n);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof ArgumentError && /limit must be <=/.test(err.message)) {
    const max = Number(err.message.match(/<= (\d+)/)?.[1] ?? 100);
    return cli.limit(Math.min(n, max));
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling limit(n, defaultValue, maxValue) with n > maxValue, e.g. limit(500, 25, 100).

Common situations: Users pass `--limit 1000` expecting more results than the adapter allows; a config file holds an oversized value; the maxValue was tightened in a newer library version and previously valid configs now exceed it.

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/160f69b2413c67a5. Report an issue: GitHub.