What causes "The "%s" modifier takes exactly one argument (2 given)." in octobercms/october?

Keep a single expression: {% cache 'sidebar' ttl(3600) %} (minutes).

octobercms/october · error · Twig\Error\SyntaxError

The "%s" modifier takes exactly one argument (2 given).

Error message

The "%s" modifier takes exactly one argument (2 given).

What it means

The ttl modifier of the {% cache %} tag takes exactly one argument. After parsing the first expression, the parser checks for a comma; presence of one means at least two arguments were supplied and it throws this SyntaxError (the message always says 2 given, even for more).

Source

Thrown at modules/cms/twig/tokenparser/CacheTokenParser.php:41

        $key = $this->parser->parseExpression();

        $ttl = null;
        while ($stream->test(Token::NAME_TYPE)) {
            $k = $stream->getCurrent()->getValue();
            if (!in_array($k, ['ttl'], true)) {
                throw new SyntaxError(sprintf('Unknown "%s" configuration.', $k), $stream->getCurrent()->getLine(), $stream->getSourceContext());
            }

            $stream->next();
            $stream->expect(Token::OPERATOR_TYPE, '(');
            $line = $stream->getCurrent()->getLine();
            if ($stream->test(Token::PUNCTUATION_TYPE, ')')) {
                throw new SyntaxError(sprintf('The "%s" modifier takes exactly one argument (0 given).', $k), $line, $stream->getSourceContext());
            }

            $arg = $this->parser->parseExpression();
            if ($stream->test(Token::PUNCTUATION_TYPE, ',')) {
                throw new SyntaxError(sprintf('The "%s" modifier takes exactly one argument (2 given).', $k), $line, $stream->getSourceContext());
            }
            $stream->expect(Token::PUNCTUATION_TYPE, ')');

            if ($k === 'ttl') {
                $ttl = $arg;
            }
        }

        $stream->expect(Token::BLOCK_END_TYPE);
        $body = $this->parser->subparse([$this, 'decideCacheEnd'], true);
        $stream->expect(Token::BLOCK_END_TYPE);

        $body = new CacheNode($key, $ttl, $body, $token->getLine());

        return new PrintNode(new RawFilter($body), $token->getLine());
    }

    /**

View on GitHub (pinned to b608633a7e)

Solutions

Keep a single expression: {% cache 'sidebar' ttl(3600) %} (minutes).
Compute composite values in PHP or via a Twig expression before the tag, not as extra arguments.
Re-save and reload - compile fails until the tag is fixed.

Example fix

{# before #}
{% cache 'sidebar' ttl(3600, 60) %}

{# after #}
{% cache 'sidebar' ttl(3600) %}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$env = app('twig.environment');
try {
    $env->parse($env->tokenize(new \Twig\Source($templateBody, $fileName)));
} catch (\Twig\Error\SyntaxError $e) {
    // reject multi-argument ttl(a, b) at lint time
}

Try / catch

try {
    $env->parse($env->tokenize(new \Twig\Source($body, $name)));
} catch (\Twig\Error\SyntaxError $e) {
    // flag 'takes exactly one argument (2 given)' for immediate fix
}

Prevention

The ttl modifier takes one value in minutes - compute composites in PHP.
Do not transliterate cache()->remember($key, $ttl, $cb) signatures into the tag.
Lint templates in CI to catch arity mistakes before deploy.

When it happens

Trigger: Writing {% cache 'sidebar' ttl(3600, 60) %} during template compilation - a comma after the TTL expression hits the punctuation check; common when porting cache()->remember($key, $ttl, $callback) muscle memory into the tag.

Common situations: Developers translating PHP cache calls 1:1 into Twig; attempts to pass separate value and unit arguments (ttl(60, 'minutes')).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of octobercms/october@b608633a7e (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3733d2b81aa6ccb0. Report an issue: GitHub.