jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

--${name} is required

Error message

--${name} is required

What it means

requireString validates that a required CLI string option is present and non-blank, trimming and returning it. If the value is not a non-empty string it throws ArgumentError with '--<name> is required', naming the flag the user must supply. It is the standard gate for mandatory openfda query parameters.

Source

Thrown at clis/openfda/utils.js:13

// openFDA shared helpers — FDA drug labels + food recall enforcement (no auth, public).
//
// Free public tier with anonymous rate limit (~240 req/min, 1000 req/day per IP).
// API key bumps that to 240 req/min × ~120000 req/day, but is not required for
// modest read traffic.
import { ArgumentError, EmptyResultError, CommandExecutionError } from '@jackwener/opencli/errors';

export const OPENFDA_BASE = 'https://api.fda.gov';
const UA = 'opencli-openfda/1.0';

export function requireString(value, name) {
    if (typeof value !== 'string' || !value.trim()) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`--${name} is required`);
    }
    return value.trim();
}

export function requireBoundedInt(value, def, max, name = 'limit') {
    const n = value == null || value === '' ? def : Number(value);
    if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < 1 || n > max) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`--${name} must be an integer between 1 and ${max}`);
    }
    return n;
}

export async function openfdaFetch(url, label) {
    let resp;
    try {
        resp = await fetch(url, { headers: { 'User-Agent': UA, accept: 'application/json' } });
    } catch (err) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`${label} request failed: ${err.message}`);

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Supply the missing flag, e.g. --query "ibuprofen".
2. In scripts, guard with ${VAR:?message} so unset variables fail early with a clear message.
3. In code, check the value before calling the API wrapper.
4. Run the command with --help to see which flags are mandatory.

Example fix

// before
QUERY="" ; opencli openfda drug-label --query "$QUERY"  # -> --query is required
// after
QUERY="ibuprofen" ; opencli openfda drug-label --query "$QUERY"

function ensureFlag(value, name) {
  if (typeof value !== 'string' || !value.trim()) {
    throw new Error(`--${name} is required`);
  }
  return value.trim();
}
// usage: const query = ensureFlag(process.env.QUERY, 'query');

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

try {
  const rows = await openfdaQuery({ query });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && /is required/.test(e.message)) {
    console.error(`Usage: supply the missing flag. ${e.message}`);
    process.exitCode = 2;
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling an openfda command (e.g. query) without the required flag, with an empty value (--query ""), or with only whitespace; programmatically passing null/undefined/number into the wrapper that forwards to requireString.

Common situations: User omits the flag because the command synopsis wasn't read; shell variable holding the query is unset so the flag expands to nothing; a script passes an empty string after trimming.

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

• keyword must not be empty
• <from> station must not be empty
• <to> station must not be empty
• who 不能为空
• key is required

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3db975e9fae5c7e. Report an issue: GitHub.