What causes "twitter following user cannot be empty" in jackwener/OpenCLI?

Pass the target screen name explicitly: `opencli twitter following @elonmusk --limit 200`

jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

twitter following user cannot be empty

Error message

twitter following user cannot be empty

What it means

ArgumentError thrown by the `twitter following` command when no target user could be determined. The command requires either an explicit @screen_name argument or a resolvable logged-in user from the session; both were empty, so it refuses to run and shows a usage example.

Source

Thrown at clis/twitter/following.js:178

            await page.goto('https://x.com/home');
            await page.wait({ selector: '[data-testid="primaryColumn"]' });
            // Bridge wraps primitive page.evaluate returns as { session, data:<value> };
            // unwrap so the href string is usable downstream.
            // NOTE: the function-literal form `() => ...` silently drops
            // primitive return values through the bridge — only the template
            // string form preserves the `data` field.
            const href = unwrapBrowserResult(await page.evaluate(`() => {
        const link = document.querySelector('a[data-testid="AppTabBar_Profile_Link"]');
        return link ? link.getAttribute('href') : null;
      }`));
            if (!href || typeof href !== 'string')
                throw new AuthRequiredError('x.com', 'Could not detect logged-in user. Are you logged in?');
            targetUser = normalizeScreenName(href);
            if (!targetUser)
                throw new AuthRequiredError('x.com', 'Could not detect logged-in user. Are you logged in?');
        }
        if (!targetUser) {
            throw new ArgumentError('twitter following user cannot be empty', 'Example: opencli twitter following @elonmusk --limit 200');
        }

        const followingQueryId = await resolveTwitterQueryId(page, 'Following', FOLLOWING_QUERY_ID);
        const userByScreenNameQueryId = await resolveTwitterQueryId(page, 'UserByScreenName', USER_BY_SCREEN_NAME_QUERY_ID);
        const headers = {
            'Authorization': `Bearer ${decodeURIComponent(TWITTER_BEARER_TOKEN)}`,
            'X-Csrf-Token': ct0,
            'X-Twitter-Auth-Type': 'OAuth2Session',
            'X-Twitter-Active-User': 'yes',
        };

        // Get userId from screen_name
        const userLookup = unwrapBrowserResult(await page.evaluate(async (url, headers) => {
            const resp = await fetch(url, { headers, credentials: 'include' });
            if (!resp.ok) return { error: resp.status };
            const d = await resp.json();
            return { userId: d.data?.user?.result?.rest_id || null };
        }, buildUserByScreenNameQueryUrl(userByScreenNameQueryId, targetUser), headers));

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

Pass the target screen name explicitly: `opencli twitter following @elonmusk --limit 200`
If you intended your own account, log into x.com in the CLI browser session so targetUser resolves
Check for typos in the argument (empty string, whitespace-only, or an unsupported format)
Run `opencli twitter following --help` to confirm the expected argument form

Example fix

// before
$ opencli twitter following
// after
$ opencli twitter following @elonmusk --limit 200

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function validateFollowingArgs(args) {
  const user = (args[0] || '').trim();
  if (!user || !/^@?[A-Za-z0-9_]{1,15}$/.test(user)) {
    throw new Error('Usage: opencli twitter following @screenname --limit 200');
  }
  return user.startsWith('@') ? user : '@' + user;
}

Type guard

function isValidScreenName(v) {
  return typeof v === 'string' && /^@?[A-Za-z0-9_]{1,15}$/.test(v.trim());
}

Try / catch

try {
  await cli.following(normalizeScreenName(input));
} catch (err) {
  if (err.name === 'ArgumentError') {
    console.error('Missing/invalid user. Example: opencli twitter following @elonmusk --limit 200');
  } else throw err;
}

Prevention

Always pass the positional @screen_name explicitly
Validate the handle matches Twitter's 1-15 char [A-Za-z0-9_] rule before invoking
If relying on the logged-in user default, confirm the session is authenticated first
Check `--help` output when scripting to keep argument forms correct

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking `opencli twitter following` with no positional user argument and no logged-in x.com session (or a session whose screen name could not be normalized), leaving targetUser falsy after all fallbacks.

Common situations: Forgetting the positional argument entirely; passing an argument that normalizeScreenName rejects (e.g. a full profile URL not handled, or 'me' without being logged in); combining empty arg with an unauthenticated browser.

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

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d36f467cef72bb16. Report an issue: GitHub.