multica-ai/multica · error

--name is required

Error message

--name is required

What it means

runAgentCreate validates the required --name flag before building the POST /api/agents body and fails fast when it is empty. The check is a plain presence test — any non-empty string passes, the server does semantic validation later.

Source

Thrown at server/cmd/multica/cmd_agent.go:639

		targets = append(targets, map[string]any{"target_type": "workspace"})
	}
	if members, _ := cmd.Flags().GetStringSlice("public-to-member"); len(members) > 0 {
		for _, m := range members {
			targets = append(targets, map[string]any{"target_type": "member", "target_id": m})
		}
	}
	body["invocation_targets"] = targets
}

func runAgentCreate(cmd *cobra.Command, _ []string) error {
	client, err := newAPIClient(cmd)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	name, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("name")
	if name == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("--name is required")
	}
	runtimeID, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("runtime-id")
	if runtimeID == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("--runtime-id is required")
	}

	body := map[string]any{
		"name":       name,
		"runtime_id": runtimeID,
	}
	if v, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("description"); v != "" {
		body["description"] = v
	}
	if v, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("instructions"); v != "" {
		body["instructions"] = v
	}
	if cmd.Flags().Changed("runtime-config") {
		v, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("runtime-config")

View on GitHub (pinned to 2c0912b6ec)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-empty --name on the command line.
2. In scripts, guard the variable first and skip/error before invoking the CLI.
3. Check for shell quoting issues like --name $NAME with NAME unset (use "$NAME").

Example fix

# before
multica agent create --runtime-id rt_cli

# after
multica agent create --name "code-reviewer" --runtime-id rt_cli

name := strings.TrimSpace(nameFlag)
if name == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("--name is required")
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `multica agent create` without --name, or with --name "" / only-whitespace that cobra still delivers as empty.

Common situations: Scripted creation loops where the name variable is conditionally empty; shell quoting mistakes that swallow the value; interactive use forgetting the flag.

Related errors

• --runtime-id is required
• --runtime-config must be valid JSON: %w
• invalid direction %q (want \"up\" or \"down\")
• list agents: %w
• get agent: %w

AI-assisted analysis of multica-ai/multica@2c0912b6ec (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5a61f3e2a3bdb19a. Report an issue: GitHub.