jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

twitter profile username must be a valid Twitter/X handle

Error message

twitter profile username must be a valid Twitter/X handle

What it means

ArgumentError thrown during argument validation when a username was supplied to `twitter profile` but it cannot be normalized into a valid Twitter/X handle by normalizeTwitterScreenName (empty after stripping @, illegal characters, too long).

Source

Thrown at clis/twitter/profile.js:88

}

cli({
    site: 'twitter',
    name: 'profile',
    access: 'read',
    description: 'Fetch a Twitter user profile — bio, stats, etc. (defaults to the logged-in user when no username is given)',
    domain: 'x.com',
    strategy: Strategy.COOKIE,
    browser: true,
    args: [
        { name: 'username', type: 'string', positional: true, help: 'Twitter screen name (with or without @). Defaults to the logged-in user when omitted.' },
    ],
    columns: ['screen_name', 'name', 'bio', 'location', 'url', 'followers', 'following', 'tweets', 'likes', 'verified', 'created_at'],
    func: async (page, kwargs) => {
        const rawUsername = String(kwargs.username ?? '').trim();
        let username = normalizeTwitterScreenName(rawUsername);
        if (rawUsername && !username) {
            throw new ArgumentError('twitter profile username must be a valid Twitter/X handle', 'Example: opencli twitter profile @jack');
        }
        // If no username, detect the logged-in user.
        // Bridge wraps primitive page.evaluate returns as { session, data:<value> };
        // unwrap so the href string is usable downstream.
        if (!username) {
            await page.goto('https://x.com/home');
            await page.wait({ selector: '[data-testid="primaryColumn"]' });
            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?');
            username = normalizeTwitterScreenName(href);
            if (!username)
                throw new AuthRequiredError('x.com', 'Could not detect logged-in user. Are you logged in?');
        }
        // Navigate directly to the user's profile page (gives us cookie context)

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Pass just the handle: `opencli twitter profile @jack` or `jack` (the @ is optional)
2. If you have a profile URL, extract the path segment first (x.com/<handle> → <handle>)
3. Trim surrounding whitespace/quotes from the argument in your script/shell

Example fix

// before
opencli twitter profile 'https://x.com/jack?foo=1'
// after
const handle = new URL(url).pathname.split('/')[1];
opencli twitter profile handle;

function normalizeHandle(raw) {
  let h = String(raw ?? '').trim();
  const m = h.match(/(?:x|twitter)\.com\/([A-Za-z0-9_]{1,15})/); // accept URLs
  if (m) h = m[1];
  h = h.replace(/^@/, '');
  return /^[A-Za-z0-9_]{1,15}$/.test(h) ? h : null;
}
if (!normalizeHandle(input)) throw new Error('invalid Twitter handle');

try {
  await opencli('twitter profile', { username });
} catch (e) {
  if (e.name === 'ArgumentError' && /valid Twitter\/X handle/.test(e.message)) {
    throw new Error(`Bad handle "${username}" — use @name or a 1-15 char alphanumeric/underscore name`);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: `opencli twitter profile <bad>` where the raw string (after trim) is non-empty but normalizeTwitterScreenName returns falsy: e.g. 'https://x.com/jack/path' passed raw, '@', names with spaces or >15 chars, or non-ASCII handles.

Common situations: Pasting a full profile URL instead of the handle; including a trailing slash or query string; accidental whitespace/newline from shell quoting; passing an email or display name instead of the handle.

Related errors

• Invalid --from username: ${JSON.stringify(kwargs.from)}
• twitter search query is empty
• twitter search --limit must be a positive integer
• twitter tweet URL cannot be empty
• Invalid tweet URL: ${value}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b1edb2987159d46a. Report an issue: GitHub.