What causes "Query cannot be empty" in nikivdev/code?

Provide a non-empty query string to the branch find command

Query cannot be empty

Error message

Query cannot be empty

What it means

`run_find` (src/branches.rs:52) trims the user-supplied query and rejects it with `bail!("Query cannot be empty")` when nothing remains. The branch-find subcommand requires a non-empty search term; this is input validation before hitting git.

Source

Thrown at src/branches.rs:52

fn run_list(opts: BranchListOpts) -> Result<()> {
    let branches = collect_branches(opts.remote)?;
    if branches.is_empty() {
        println!("No branches found.");
        return Ok(());
    }

    let limit = opts.limit.max(1);
    for entry in branches.iter().take(limit) {
        print_branch(entry);
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn run_find(opts: BranchFindOpts) -> Result<()> {
    let query = opts.query.trim().to_string();
    if query.is_empty() {
        bail!("Query cannot be empty");
    }

    let branches = collect_branches(opts.remote)?;
    if branches.is_empty() {
        bail!("No branches available to search");
    }

    let ranked = rank_branches(&query, &branches);
    if ranked.is_empty() {
        bail!("No branches matched query '{}'.", query);
    }

    let limit = opts.limit.max(1);
    for (_, entry) in ranked.iter().take(limit) {
        print_branch(entry);
    }

    if opts.switch {

View on GitHub (pinned to a747e741ae)

Solutions

Provide a non-empty query string to the branch find command
Check that any shell variable feeding the query is set and non-blank
Quote the query argument so the shell doesn't swallow it

Example fix

// before
f branch find --query "$Q"   // Q empty
// after
[ -n "$Q" ] && f branch find --query "$Q"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

let query = opts.query.trim();
if query.is_empty() {
    anyhow::bail!("provide a non-empty branch search query");
}

Type guard

fn has_query(q: &str) -> bool { !q.trim().is_empty() }

Try / catch

match run_find(opts) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string() == "Query cannot be empty" => {
        eprintln!("usage: f branch find --query <text>");
    }
    other => other?,
}

Prevention

Always pass an explicit, quoted query argument
In scripts, assert the query variable is non-empty before invoking
Require the query flag (required rather than optional) in the CLI definition

When it happens

Trigger: Running the branch find subcommand with an empty or whitespace-only `query` option (e.g. `f branch find --query " "` or omitting the value).

Common situations: Shell variable holding the query is empty/unset; user pasted only whitespace; CLI arg parsing dropped the value after a flag.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nikivdev/code@a747e741ae (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/85e17e9ac79215f4. Report an issue: GitHub.