jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

wikidata entity id is required (e.g. "Q937")

Error message

wikidata entity id is required (e.g. "Q937")

What it means

requireEntityId validates the entity ID argument for `wikidata entity`. If the value is empty after trimming, it throws this ArgumentError with an example of the expected format. It exists to fail fast before any network request is made.

Source

Thrown at clis/wikidata/utils.js:37

    if (!s) throw new ArgumentError(`wikidata ${label} cannot be empty`);
    return s;
}

export function requireBoundedInt(value, defaultValue, maxValue, label = 'limit') {
    const raw = value ?? defaultValue;
    const n = typeof raw === 'number' ? raw : Number(raw);
    if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n <= 0) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`wikidata ${label} must be a positive integer`);
    }
    if (n > maxValue) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`wikidata ${label} must be <= ${maxValue}`);
    }
    return n;
}

export function requireEntityId(value) {
    const raw = String(value ?? '').trim().toUpperCase();
    if (!raw) throw new ArgumentError('wikidata entity id is required (e.g. "Q937")');
    // Tolerate URL-paste like `https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q937`.
    const stripped = raw.replace(/^HTTPS?:\/\/[^/]+\/WIKI\//i, '');
    if (!ENTITY_ID_PATTERN.test(stripped)) {
        throw new ArgumentError(
            `wikidata entity id "${value}" is not a valid Q/P/L identifier`,
            'Expected format: "Q<digits>" (item), "P<digits>" (property), or "L<digits>" (lexeme).',
        );
    }
    return stripped;
}

export function requireLanguage(value, defaultValue = 'en') {
    const raw = String(value ?? defaultValue).trim().toLowerCase();
    // Wikidata language codes are 2-3 letter ISO 639 codes plus optional region (`zh-hans`).
    if (!/^[a-z]{2,3}(-[a-z]{2,8})?$/.test(raw)) {
        throw new ArgumentError(
            `wikidata language "${value}" is not a valid language code`,
            'Expected an ISO 639 language code such as "en", "fr", "zh", "zh-hans".',

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Supply an entity ID, e.g. `wikidata entity Q937`
2. Check the variable/config feeding the argument is non-empty
3. Run `wikidata search <term>` first to obtain a valid QID

Example fix

// before
const qid = args[0]; // may be undefined
await runCli(['wikidata', 'entity', qid]);
// after
if (!args[0]) throw new Error('usage: wikidata entity <QID>');
await runCli(['wikidata', 'entity', args[0]]);

const qid = args[0];
if (qid == null || String(qid).trim() === '') throw new Error('wikidata entity requires an id like Q937');

function hasEntityId(args) { return Array.isArray(args) && typeof args[0] === 'string' && args[0].trim().length > 0; }

try {
    await runCli(['wikidata', 'entity', qid]);
} catch (e) {
    if (/entity id is required/.test(e.message)) {
        console.error('usage: wikidata entity <QID>  e.g. wikidata entity Q937');
        process.exitCode = 2;
    } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `wikidata entity` with a missing, empty, or whitespace-only id argument — e.g. `wikidata entity ''` or a variable that resolved to nothing.

Common situations: Forgetting the positional argument on the command line; an upstream pipeline passing an undefined/empty qid; a shell variable that was never set.

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

• ${label} is required
• ${label} must be a positive integer
• ${label} must be <= ${maxValue}
• arxiv ${label} must be a positive integer
• arxiv ${label} must be <= ${maxValue}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a9351bf4700a9672. Report an issue: GitHub.