kovidgoyal/kitty · error · ValueError

--hold-after-ssh can only be supplied if --cwd=current or si

Error message

--hold-after-ssh can only be supplied if --cwd=current or similar is also supplied

What it means

In _launch, --hold-after-ssh only makes sense when the window's cwd is derived from an existing window (so kitty knows which ssh child to hold). If opts.cwd is not one of 'current', 'last_reported', 'oldest', a ValueError is raised.

Source

Thrown at kitty/launch.py:726

        kw['bias'] = max(-100, min(opts.bias, 100))
    if opts.cwd:
        if opts.cwd == 'current':
            if source_window:
                kw['cwd_from'] = CwdRequest(source_window)
        elif opts.cwd == 'last_reported':
            if source_window:
                kw['cwd_from'] = CwdRequest(source_window, CwdRequestType.last_reported)
        elif opts.cwd == 'oldest':
            if source_window:
                kw['cwd_from'] = CwdRequest(source_window, CwdRequestType.oldest)
        elif opts.cwd == 'root':
            if source_window:
                kw['cwd_from'] = CwdRequest(source_window, CwdRequestType.root)
        else:
            kw['cwd'] = opts.cwd
    if opts.hold_after_ssh:
        if opts.cwd not in ('current', 'last_reported', 'oldest'):
            raise ValueError('--hold-after-ssh can only be supplied if --cwd=current or similar is also supplied')
        kw['hold_after_ssh'] = True

    if opts.location != 'default':
        kw['location'] = opts.location
    if opts.copy_colors and source_window:
        kw['copy_colors_from'] = source_window
    pipe_data: dict[str, Any] = {}
    if opts.stdin_source != 'none':
        q = str(opts.stdin_source)
        if opts.stdin_add_formatting:
            if q in (
                '@screen',
                '@screen_scrollback',
                '@alternate',
                '@alternate_scrollback',
                '@first_cmd_output_on_screen',
                '@last_cmd_output',
                '@last_visited_cmd_output',

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

Add --cwd=current (or last_reported/oldest) alongside --hold-after-ssh.
Remove --hold-after-ssh if you specify an explicit --cwd.

Example fix

# before
kitty @ launch --hold-after-ssh --cwd=/tmp
# after
kitty @ launch --hold-after-ssh --cwd=current

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

HOLD_OK = ('current', 'last_reported', 'oldest')
if opts.hold_after_ssh:
    assert opts.cwd in HOLD_OK, '--hold-after-ssh requires --cwd in ' + str(HOLD_OK)

Type guard

def launch_opts_consistent(opts) -> bool:
    return not opts.hold_after_ssh or opts.cwd in ('current', 'last_reported', 'oldest')

Prevention

Treat --hold-after-ssh and explicit --cwd as mutually exclusive.
Encode the constraint in your launch-command builder.

When it happens

Trigger: Combining --hold-after-ssh with --cwd=<explicit path>, --cwd=root, or the default cwd resolution, i.e. any value outside the allowed trio.

Common situations: Users copying --hold-after-ssh into a launch command that also sets --cwd=/some/path; kittens/scripts combining flags without checking constraints; version upgrades introducing the new flag.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/db841400cd85ffc1. Report an issue: GitHub.