multica-ai/multica · warning

--name is required

Error message

--name is required

What it means

Client-side flag validation in `multica squads create`: the squad's display `--name` is mandatory and was empty. Validation happens before the API client is constructed, so nothing is sent and no side effects occur.

Source

Thrown at server/cmd/multica/cmd_squad.go:124

	if inst := strVal(squad, "instructions"); inst != "" {
		fmt.Printf("Instructions: %s\n", inst)
	}
	return nil
}

// ── Create ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

var squadCreateCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:   "create",
	Short: "Create a new squad",
	Args:  cobra.NoArgs,
	RunE:  runSquadCreate,
}

func runSquadCreate(cmd *cobra.Command, _ []string) error {
	name, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("name")
	if name == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("--name is required")
	}
	leader, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("leader")
	if leader == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("--leader is required (agent name or ID)")
	}

	client, err := newAPIClient(cmd)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	ctx, cancel := cli.APIContext(context.Background())
	defer cancel()

	leaderID, err := resolveAgent(ctx, client, leader)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("resolve leader: %w", err)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2c0912b6ec)

Solutions

1. Supply a non-empty name: `multica squads create --name "alpha" --leader alice`.
2. In scripts, default or fail fast: `: "${NAME:?NAME required}".
3. Run `multica squads create --help` to see all required flags before composing the command.

Example fix

# before
multica squads create --leader agent-1

# after
multica squads create --name "research squad" --leader agent-1

: "${SQUAD_NAME:?set SQUAD_NAME}"
multica squads create --name "$SQUAD_NAME" --leader "$LEADER"

When it happens

Trigger: Running `multica squads create --leader alice` without --name; script passes an unset NAME variable; passing `--name ""` explicitly.

Common situations: CI pipeline creating squads from a matrix where one entry lacks a name field; interactive use where the user assumed a prompt; whitespace-trimmed variable silently empty.

Related errors

• --leader is required (agent name or ID)
• --cutoff is required; use the hosted deployment time of the
• --batch-size must be positive
• --%s, --%s-stdin, and --%s-file are mutually exclusive; pick
• --%s-file: path must not be empty

AI-assisted analysis of multica-ai/multica@2c0912b6ec (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/00929f6bb9231fcc. Report an issue: GitHub.