jackwener/OpenCLI · error · ArgumentError

youtube search limit must be <= ${MAX_LIMIT}

Error message

youtube search limit must be <= ${MAX_LIMIT}

What it means

ArgumentError from normalizeLimit enforcing MAX_LIMIT = 50. Values above 50 are rejected because YouTube search continuations are capped and the CLI will not silently clamp; you must request at most 50 results per invocation.

Source

Thrown at clis/youtube/search.js:53

    views: 'CAM%3D',
    rating: 'CAE%3D',
};

function normalizeChoice(value, choices, label) {
    const normalized = String(value || '').trim();
    if (normalized && !Object.hasOwn(choices, normalized)) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`youtube search ${label} must be one of: ${Object.keys(choices).join(', ')}`);
    }
    return normalized;
}

function normalizeLimit(value) {
    const limit = Number(value ?? DEFAULT_LIMIT);
    if (!Number.isInteger(limit) || limit <= 0) {
        throw new ArgumentError('youtube search limit must be a positive integer');
    }
    if (limit > MAX_LIMIT) {
        throw new ArgumentError(`youtube search limit must be <= ${MAX_LIMIT}`);
    }
    return limit;
}

cli({
    site: 'youtube',
    name: 'search',
    access: 'read',
    description: 'Search YouTube videos, Shorts, channels, and playlists',
    domain: 'www.youtube.com',
    strategy: Strategy.COOKIE,
    args: [
        { name: 'query', required: true, positional: true, help: 'Search query' },
        { name: 'limit', type: 'int', default: DEFAULT_LIMIT, help: 'Max results (max 50)' },
        { name: 'type', default: '', help: 'Filter type: shorts, video, channel, playlist' },
        { name: 'upload', default: '', help: 'Upload date: hour, today, week, month, year' },
        { name: 'sort', default: '', help: 'Sort by: relevance, date, views, rating' },
    ],

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Cap the value at 50: --limit 50 (the CLI fetches up to MAX_PAGES internally within that cap)
2. Clamp in code before calling: Math.min(Math.max(1, n), 50)
3. Split large needs across multiple targeted queries instead of one huge limit

Example fix

// before
opencli youtube search "cats" --limit 500
// after
opencli youtube search "cats" --limit 50

function clampLimit(value, { MAX = 50 } = {}) {
  const n = Math.floor(Number(value));
  if (!Number.isFinite(n)) return null; // omit flag -> default 20
  return Math.min(Math.max(1, n), MAX);
}
// usage: --limit clampLimit(requested) ?? undefined

const isWithinLimitCap = (v, cap = 50) => Number.isInteger(Number(v)) && Number(v) > 0 && Number(v) <= cap;

try {
  await run('youtube search', [query, '--limit', String(limit)]);
} catch (e) {
  if (/limit must be <=/i.test(e.message)) {
    console.warn(`--limit ${limit} exceeds cap 50; retrying with 50`);
    return run('youtube search', [query, '--limit', '50']);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: `--limit 100`, `--limit 1000`, or a script computing a large page size and passing it unclamped to youtube search.

Common situations: Assuming the CLI paginates automatically like the API, porting scripts from other tools with higher caps, or passing total dataset sizes instead of per-call limits.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• youtube search ${label} must be one of: ${Object.keys(choice
• youtube search limit must be a positive integer
• --${name} must be between ${min} and ${max}, got ${parsed}
• juejin ${label} must be <= ${maxValue}
• --limit must be an integer between 1 and 500

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fc315ca179b756f0. Report an issue: GitHub.