jackwener/OpenCLI · warning · ArgumentError

Refusing to delete section "${title || sectionId}" without -

Error message

Refusing to delete section "${title || sectionId}" without --confirm

What it means

This ArgumentError is a destructive-action safety gate: `pinterest board-section-delete` refuses to delete unless `--confirm` (kwargs.confirm === true) was passed. The section is resolved first (line 32) so the message names the exact section (`title || sectionId`) that would be deleted, giving an accurate preview before the user opts in. This mirrors the confirm gate used by other delete commands in this CLI family.

Source

Thrown at clis/pinterest/board-section-delete.js:32

    { name: 'board', type: 'string', positional: true, required: true, help: '<username>/<slug>, a board URL, or a numeric board id, e.g. janedoe/my-board' },
    { name: 'section', type: 'string', required: true, help: 'Section id or slug (from `board-sections`)' },
    { name: 'confirm', type: 'bool', default: false, help: 'Actually delete — without it nothing is removed' },
  ],
  columns: ['sectionId', 'board', 'deleted'],
  func: async (page, kwargs) => {
    const { username, slug, path, board: preloadedBoard } = await resolveBoardTarget(page, kwargs.board);
    const section = String(kwargs.section ?? '').trim();
    if (!section) throw new ArgumentError('section is required', 'List sections with `pinterest board-sections <board>`');

    await page.goto(`${PINTEREST_BASE}${path}`);
    const { boardId } = await resolveBoardId(page, username, slug, path, preloadedBoard);
    // Resolve before the gate so the preview names the section that would actually be deleted.
    const { sectionId, title } = await resolveSection(page, boardId, section, path);

    // Deleting a section returns its pins to the board rather than destroying them,
    // but it is still not undoable, so keep the same --confirm gate as the other deletes.
    if (kwargs.confirm !== true) {
      throw new ArgumentError(
        `Refusing to delete section "${title || sectionId}" without --confirm`,
        'Re-run with --confirm once you are sure',
      );
    }

    // BoardSectionResource only implements `create`; deletes go through the v3 API proxy.
    await pinterestResourceFetch(
      page,
      'ApiResource',
      { url: `/v3/board/sections/${sectionId}/`, data: {} },
      path,
      'delete',
    );

    return [{ sectionId, board: `${username}/${slug}`, deleted: true }];
  },
});

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Re-run with the flag once sure: `pinterest board-section-delete <board> --section "X" --confirm`
2. In programmatic use set kwargs.confirm to the boolean true (not a truthy string)
3. Detect this ArgumentError by its message and prompt the user for confirmation before retrying with confirm: true
4. Use the command without --confirm intentionally as a dry-run to see which section would be deleted

Example fix

// before
await cli.run(`pinterest board-section-delete ${board} --section "${section}"`);
// after
const args = [`--section "${section}"`];
if (process.env.FORCE_DELETE === '1') args.push('--confirm');
await cli.run(`pinterest board-section-delete ${board} ${args.join(' ')}`);

if (kwargs.confirm !== true) {
  throw new Error('re-run with --confirm to delete');
}

function isConfirmed(kwargs) {
  return kwargs.confirm === true;
}

try {
  await boardSectionDelete({ board, section, confirm });
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof ArgumentError && /without --confirm/.test(err.message)) {
    const name = err.message.match(/"([^"]+)"/)?.[1];
    const ok = await promptYesNo(`Delete section ${name}?`);
    if (ok) return boardSectionDelete({ board, section, confirm: true });
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `pinterest board-section-delete <board> --section "X"` without `--confirm`; passing `--confirm false` programmatically (kwargs.confirm !== true); forgetting the flag in a script migrated from a non-gated version; typos like `--confirmed` that leave confirm unset.

Common situations: Interactive users previewing what a delete would remove (the intended flow); CI jobs that must add `--confirm` explicitly to delete; wrappers that build kwargs and never set confirm: true.

Related errors

• no pins found in board "${username}/${slug}"
• section title is required
• Section creation did not return a section id
• section is required
• Could not resolve board "${username}/${slug}" (does it exist

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a13d31e23bf1407f. Report an issue: GitHub.