jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

messageId required

Error message

messageId required

What it means

assertMessageIdShape throws 'messageId required' when the given messageId argument is empty after trimming (undefined, null, or ''). Every message-scoped command needs a message UUID to act on, so the empty value fails fast as an ArgumentError.

Source

Thrown at clis/slock/resolve.js:41

    const rest = v.slice(3);
    if (!rest) throw new ArgumentError('dm target must be "dm:<userId>" or "dm:@name".');
    if (UUID_RE.test(rest)) return { kind: 'dm-uuid', userId: rest };
    if (rest.startsWith('@')) return { kind: 'dm-name', name: rest.slice(1) };
    throw new ArgumentError('dm target must be "dm:<userId-uuid>" or "dm:@name".');
  }
  const tt = classifyThreadTarget(v);
  if (tt) return { kind: 'thread', ...tt };
  if (UUID_RE.test(v)) return { kind: 'channel-uuid', channelId: v };
  return { kind: 'channel-name', name: v.replace(/^#/, '').toLowerCase() };
}

const SHORT_ID_HINT =
  'short ids (the 8-hex `msg=...` form in channel headers) are NOT accepted — use the FULL UUID ' +
  'from `bookmark-list` / `message-read` output.';

export function assertMessageIdShape(messageId) {
  const v = String(messageId ?? '').trim();
  if (!v) throw new ArgumentError('messageId required');
  if (!UUID_RE.test(v)) {
    throw new ArgumentError(`messageId "${v}" is not a full UUID. ${SHORT_ID_HINT}`);
  }
  return v;
}

export function parsePositiveInteger(value, name, { defaultValue, max } = {}) {
  const raw = value === undefined || value === null || value === '' ? defaultValue : value;
  const n = parseStrictInteger(raw);
  if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n <= 0 || (max !== undefined && n > max)) {
    const suffix = max !== undefined ? ` between 1 and ${max}` : ' as a positive integer';
    throw new ArgumentError(`${name} must be${suffix} (got "${raw}")`);
  }
  return n;
}

export function parseNonNegativeInteger(value, name, { defaultValue } = {}) {
  const raw = value === undefined || value === null || value === '' ? defaultValue : value;

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Pass a full message UUID via --messageId
2. Capture the messageId from `message-send` output (the 'messageId' column) into your variable
3. Check the flag spelling so kwargs.messageId isn't falling back to '' via `?? ''`

Example fix

// before
const id = process.env.MSG_ID; // unset
await cli('reaction-add', { messageId: id ?? '', emoji: '👍' });
// after
const id = process.env.MSG_ID;
if (!id) throw new Error('MSG_ID env var must contain a message UUID');
await cli('reaction-add', { messageId: id, emoji: '👍' });

if (!String(messageId ?? '').trim()) throw new Error('messageId required: pass --messageId <full-uuid>');

function hasMessageId(v) {
  return typeof v === 'string' && v.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  await cli('reaction-add', { messageId, emoji });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && e.message === 'messageId required') {
    console.error('--messageId was empty; check the variable/flag supplying it (must be a full UUID).');
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `slock reaction-add`, `reaction-remove`, or similar with --messageId omitted entirely, `--messageId=`, `--messageId " "`, or passing an unset variable as the id value.

Common situations: Automated scripts where the message id variable was never populated (e.g. message-send output not captured); optional-flag chains where --messageId was dropped; refactoring that renamed the kwarg.

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

• archive wayback url cannot be empty
• designer is required (for example: halolab)
• shot is required (numeric id or dribbble.com/shots URL)
• query is required
• emoji required (a single unicode emoji)

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7d1475057b71949f. Report an issue: GitHub.