jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

steam ${label} cannot be empty

Error message

steam ${label} cannot be empty

What it means

requireString is the Steam adapter's generic non-empty-string validator; it throws ArgumentError whenever a labeled input trims to an empty string. It guards commands like receipt, amount, and date from receiving missing or blank arguments.

Source

Thrown at clis/steam/utils.js:11

// Shared helpers for the steam adapters that hit Steam's storefront JSON
// endpoints (no browser).
import { ArgumentError, CommandExecutionError, EmptyResultError } from '@jackwener/opencli/errors';

export const STEAM_STORE = 'https://store.steampowered.com';
const UA = 'opencli-steam-adapter (+https://github.com/jackwener/opencli)';

export function requireString(value, label) {
    const s = String(value ?? '').trim();
    if (!s) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`steam ${label} cannot be empty`);
    }
    return s;
}

export function requireCountryCode(value, defaultValue = 'us') {
    const raw = value === undefined || value === null ? defaultValue : value;
    const code = String(raw).trim().toLowerCase();
    if (!/^[a-z]{2}$/.test(code)) {
        throw new ArgumentError(
            `steam currency must be a two-letter storefront country code (got "${value}")`,
            'Examples: us, cn, jp, de. This controls Steam regional pricing and availability.',
        );
    }
    return code;
}

export function requireBoundedInt(value, defaultValue, maxValue, label = 'limit') {
    const raw = value ?? defaultValue;

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Supply the missing argument with a non-empty value
2. Check that the environment variable or flag feeding the value is actually set
3. Add pre-validation in the caller before invoking the command
4. Handle ArgumentError to print usage help instead of a raw failure

Example fix

// before
const receipt = args.receipt; // undefined
// after
const receipt = requireString(args.receipt ?? process.env.RECEIPT_PATH, 'receipt');

function requireNonEmpty(v, label) {
  const s = String(v ?? '').trim();
  if (!s) throw new Error(`${label} is required`);
  return s;
}

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

try {
  await cmd({ receipt: value });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && /cannot be empty/.test(e.message)) {
    console.error('Missing value:', e.message); // print usage
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing an empty string, whitespace-only string, null, or undefined to any requireString-guarded argument (receipt, amount, date, normalizeReimbursementInput fields).

Common situations: Unset CLI flags (`--receipt ""`), environment variables that are empty, programmatic callers passing undefined for optional-but-required fields.

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

• steam currency must be a two-letter storefront country code
• steam ${label} must be a positive integer
• steam ${label} must be <= ${maxValue}
• steam app id is required (e.g. "620" for Portal 2)
• bbc topic "${args.topic}" is not supported

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/42a7eeb32a458b2d. Report an issue: GitHub.