jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

target required: "#channel", "#channel:threadShortId", "dm:@

Error message

target required: "#channel", "#channel:threadShortId", "dm:@name", "dm:<userId>", or channelId UUID.

What it means

classifyTarget parses the positional `target` argument for Slock commands; when the value is empty after trimming, it throws this ArgumentError listing all accepted target forms. The command cannot resolve a channel, DM, or thread without a target string.

Source

Thrown at clis/slock/resolve.js:21

export const UUID_RE = /^[0-9a-fA-F]{8}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}-[0-9a-fA-F]{12}$/;

// ThreadTarget shape: { parentTarget: string, parentMsgId: string }
export function classifyThreadTarget(raw) {
  const s = String(raw ?? '').trim();
  const m = s.match(/^(#?[^:]+):([A-Za-z0-9-]{6,})$/);
  if (!m) return null;
  return { parentTarget: m[1], parentMsgId: m[2] };
}

// Target kinds:
//   { kind: 'channel-uuid', channelId }
//   { kind: 'channel-name', name }
//   { kind: 'dm-uuid', userId }
//   { kind: 'dm-name', name }
//   { kind: 'thread', parentTarget, parentMsgId }
export function classifyTarget(raw) {
  const v = String(raw ?? '').trim();
  if (!v) throw new ArgumentError('target required: "#channel", "#channel:threadShortId", "dm:@name", "dm:<userId>", or channelId UUID.');
  if (v.startsWith('dm:')) {
    const rest = v.slice(3);
    if (!rest) throw new ArgumentError('dm target must be "dm:<userId>" or "dm:@name".');
    if (UUID_RE.test(rest)) return { kind: 'dm-uuid', userId: rest };
    if (rest.startsWith('@')) return { kind: 'dm-name', name: rest.slice(1) };
    throw new ArgumentError('dm target must be "dm:<userId-uuid>" or "dm:@name".');
  }
  const tt = classifyThreadTarget(v);
  if (tt) return { kind: 'thread', ...tt };
  if (UUID_RE.test(v)) return { kind: 'channel-uuid', channelId: v };
  return { kind: 'channel-name', name: v.replace(/^#/, '').toLowerCase() };
}

const SHORT_ID_HINT =
  'short ids (the 8-hex `msg=...` form in channel headers) are NOT accepted — use the FULL UUID ' +
  'from `bookmark-list` / `message-read` output.';

export function assertMessageIdShape(messageId) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Provide a valid target: `#channel`, `#channel:threadId`, `dm:@name`, `dm:<userId-uuid>`, or a channel UUID
2. Check the script/variable that supplies the target is not empty
3. Quote the target in the shell: `slock message-send "#general" "hi"`

Example fix

// before
await cli('message-send', { target: '', content: 'hi' });
// after
await cli('message-send', { target: '#general', content: 'hi' });

const target = String(process.argv[2] ?? '').trim();
if (!target) throw new Error('target required: "#channel", "#channel:threadId", "dm:@name", "dm:<userId>", or channelId UUID');

function isValidTarget(v) {
  if (typeof v !== 'string') return false;
  const s = v.trim();
  if (!s) return false;
  if (s.startsWith('dm:')) return s.length > 3;
  return /^#/.test(s) || /^[0-9a-fA-F-]{6,}$/.test(s);
}

try {
  await cli('message-send', { target, content });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof ArgumentError && e.message.startsWith('target required')) {
    console.error('No target given; supply #channel, dm:@name, dm:<uuid>, or a channel UUID.');
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling a command that classifies its target (e.g. message-send) with an empty positional: `slock message-send "" "hello"`, or a kwargs.target that is undefined/null coerced to '' via `String(raw ?? '')`.

Common situations: Script variable for the channel unset; quoting mistake passing an empty string; piping empty input into the target slot; calling the CLI programmatically and omitting kwargs.target.

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

• <train-no> must not be empty
• keyword must not be empty
• <from> station must not be empty
• <to> station must not be empty
• who 不能为空

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dbb4b52adf6efa91. Report an issue: GitHub.