jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

prompt is required

Error message

prompt is required

What it means

clis/qwen/send.js trims kwargs.prompt and throws ArgumentError('prompt is required') when the result is empty. The command exists to send a text prompt to the Qianwen chat, so a missing/blank prompt is rejected before any browser interaction.

Source

Thrown at clis/qwen/send.js:34

    site: 'qwen',
    name: 'send',
    access: 'write',
    description: 'Fire-and-forget: send a prompt to Qianwen without waiting for the reply',
    domain: QIANWEN_DOMAIN,
    strategy: Strategy.COOKIE,
    browser: true,
    siteSession: 'persistent',
    navigateBefore: false,
    args: [
        { name: 'prompt', required: true, positional: true, help: 'Prompt to send to Qianwen' },
        { name: 'new', type: 'boolean', default: false, help: 'Start a new chat before sending' },
        { name: 'think', type: 'boolean', default: false, help: 'Enable 深度思考 (DeepThink)' },
        { name: 'research', type: 'boolean', default: false, help: 'Enable 深度研究 (DeepResearch)' },
    ],
    columns: ['Status', 'Prompt'],
    func: async (page, kwargs) => {
        const prompt = String(kwargs.prompt || '').trim();
        if (!prompt) throw new ArgumentError('prompt is required');
        const startFresh = normalizeBooleanFlag(kwargs.new, false);
        const useThink = normalizeBooleanFlag(kwargs.think, false);
        const useResearch = normalizeBooleanFlag(kwargs.research, false);

        await ensureOnQianwen(page);
        await dismissLoginModal(page);
        if (startFresh) {
            await startNewChat(page);
            await dismissLoginModal(page);
        }
        if (useThink) await setFeatureToggle(page, 'think', true);
        if (useResearch) await setFeatureToggle(page, 'research', true);

        const send = await sendMessage(page, prompt);
        if (!send?.ok) {
            if (await hasLoginGate(page)) throw authRequired();
            throw new CommandExecutionError(send?.reason || 'Failed to send Qianwen prompt');
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Pass --prompt with non-empty text, e.g. --prompt 'Explain HTTP caching'
2. Quote multi-word prompts so the shell delivers one argument
3. Echo/verify the variable feeding --prompt is non-empty in your script
4. If passing positionally, switch to the explicit --prompt flag

Example fix

// before
MSG=""
clis qwen send --prompt "$MSG"
// after
MSG="Explain HTTP caching"
[ -n "$MSG" ] && clis qwen send --prompt "$MSG"

const prompt = (process.argv.prompt || '').trim();
if (!prompt) {
  throw new Error('qwen send requires a non-empty --prompt, e.g. --prompt "Explain HTTP caching"');
}

const hasPrompt = (kwargs) => typeof kwargs?.prompt === 'string' && kwargs.prompt.trim().length > 0;

try {
  await runQianwenSend(args);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && e.message === 'prompt is required') {
    console.error('Usage: qwen send --prompt "<text>"');
    process.exitCode = 2;
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking the send command without --prompt; passing --prompt '' or only whitespace (' '); passing the message positionally when the CLI only reads kwargs.prompt; an enclosing script drops the argument due to quoting issues.

Common situations: Shell quoting bugs where an empty variable expands to nothing (prompt="$MSG" with MSG empty); forgetting the flag name; multi-line prompts mangled by the shell; wrapper scripts that filter out empty args.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• INVALID_ARGUMENT
• INVALID_ARGUMENT
• ${label} is required
• ${label} must be a positive integer
• ${label} must be <= ${maxValue}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a3e49210fb0005d6. Report an issue: GitHub.