jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

must be a conversation id, /app/<id> URL, or sidebar title

Error message

must be a conversation id, /app/<id> URL, or sidebar title

What it means

resolveTargetUrl in gemini detail throws ArgumentError with the message 'must be a conversation id, /app/<id> URL, or sidebar title' when the query argument is empty or only whitespace after trimming. It tells the caller which three forms of the --id argument are accepted. The error is raised before any page navigation or sidebar lookup happens.

Source

Thrown at clis/gemini/detail.js:24

    ensureGeminiPage,
    getGeminiConversationList,
    getGeminiVisibleTurns,
    resolveGeminiConversationForQuery,
} from './utils.js';
import { extractGeminiId } from './history.js';

/**
 * Resolve the caller-supplied `<id>` argument into an absolute
 * conversation URL. Accepts:
 *   1. A bare conversation id (`b8368a89d4242e5f`)
 *   2. A relative `/app/<id>` path
 *   3. A full `https://gemini.google.com/app/<id>` URL
 *   4. A sidebar title — looked up exactly first, then by substring
 */
async function resolveTargetUrl(page, query) {
    const raw = String(query || '').trim();
    if (!raw) {
        throw new ArgumentError('id', 'must be a conversation id, /app/<id> URL, or sidebar title');
    }

    // Unambiguously id-shaped inputs (URL, /app/<id> path, or 16-hex bare id)
    // skip the sidebar lookup. Generic alphanumeric strings always go through
    // title-matching first so a chat called "Empire study" doesn't get treated
    // as the literal conversation id "Empire study".
    const directId = extractGeminiId(raw);
    const looksLikeId =
        raw.startsWith('http') ||
        raw.startsWith('/app/') ||
        /^[a-f0-9]{16,}$/i.test(raw);
    if (directId && looksLikeId) {
        return `${GEMINI_APP_URL}/${directId}`;
    }

    const conversations = await getGeminiConversationList(page);
    const match = resolveGeminiConversationForQuery(conversations, raw, 'contains');
    if (!match || !match.Url) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Provide a valid --id value: a bare conversation id, a full https://gemini.google.com/app/<id> URL, an /app/<id> path, or a sidebar title
2. If the id comes from another command, capture the output of `opencli gemini history` first and use its Id or Url column
3. Trim the value in scripts and skip the call if empty rather than invoking with a blank argument
4. Check shell quoting so the argument actually reaches the command

Example fix

// before
const id = convo?.Id ?? '';
await run(['gemini', 'detail', '--id', id]);
// after
const id = convo?.Id ?? '';
if (!id.trim()) throw new Error('No conversation id available; run gemini history first');
await run(['gemini', 'detail', '--id', id]);

const id = (kwargs?.id ?? '').trim();
if (!id) throw new Error('gemini detail requires a non-empty --id (id, /app/<id> URL, or sidebar title)');

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

try {
  await run(['gemini','detail','--id', id]);
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes('must be a conversation id')) {
    console.error('Provide --id as a conversation id, /app/<id> URL, or sidebar title.');
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `opencli gemini detail` without --id; passing an empty string --id ''; passing whitespace ' '; passing null/undefined programmatically into the target command's kwargs.id.

Common situations: A script variable holding the conversation id is empty because a previous history lookup returned nothing; quoting mistakes dropping the value (--id ""); copy-paste that grabbed only whitespace; forgetting the flag on first use.

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

• symbol is required
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• --city is required (numeric city ID from `ctrip search` or `
• --${name} is required (e.g. 北京 / 上海)
• hotel id is required (numeric id from `ctrip hotel-suggest`,

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7f6386b8bdeda3f9. Report an issue: GitHub.