Too many command line arguments. Did you mean to use -chdir?

Error message

Too many command line arguments. Did you mean to use -chdir?

What it means

Raised by modulePath (internal/command/command.go:64) when a command that takes no positional arguments receives at least one. OpenTofu centralized module-path validation here: extra args almost always mean the user tried to pass a working directory the pre-0.14 way, so the message points at the -chdir global flag instead.

Source

Thrown at internal/command/command.go:64

The "backend" in OpenTofu defines how OpenTofu operates. The default
backend performs all operations locally on your machine. Your configuration
is configured to use a non-local backend. This backend doesn't support this
operation.
`

// modulePath returns the path to the root module and validates CLI arguments.
//
// This centralizes the logic for any commands that previously accepted
// a module path via CLI arguments. This will error if any extraneous arguments
// are given and suggest using the -chdir flag instead.
//
// If your command accepts more than one arg, then change the slice bounds
// to pass validation.
func modulePath(args []string) (string, error) {
	// TODO: test

	if len(args) > 0 {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("Too many command line arguments. Did you mean to use -chdir?")
	}

	path, err := os.Getwd()
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("Error getting pwd: %w", err)
	}

	return path, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 3561785c48)

Solutions

Move the directory to the global flag: tofu -chdir=./envs/prod plan (flag must come before the subcommand)
Or cd into the target directory and run the command with no positional args
Remove stray arguments if they were accidental (copy/paste, wrapper bugs)

Example fix

# before
tofu plan ./envs/prod
# Error: Too many command line arguments. Did you mean to use -chdir?

# after
tofu -chdir=./envs/prod plan

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// wrapper-side guard mirroring modulePath's contract:
func validateArgs(cmd string, args []string) error {
    zeroArg := map[string]bool{"plan": true, "apply": true, "init": true, "validate": true, "refresh": true}
    if zeroArg[cmd] && len(args) > 0 {
        return fmt.Errorf("%s takes no positional args; use tofu -chdir=%s %s", cmd, args[0], cmd)
    }
    return nil
}

Try / catch

path, err := modulePath(args)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "Too many command line arguments") {
        // rewrite to: tofu -chdir=<arg> <cmd> and retry, or surface usage help
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Use -chdir before the subcommand instead of positional paths
Lint legacy scripts that pass directory arguments to plan/apply/validate
Check wrappers/aliases for accidentally appended arguments

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking a zero-arg command like 'tofu plan ./envs/prod', 'tofu apply prod', or 'tofu init infra' - any positional argument reaches modulePath and trips len(args) > 0.

Common situations: Scripts written for Terraform <= 0.13 that passed a module path; users assuming apply takes a directory; wrappers or aliases that append arguments unexpectedly.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of opentofu/opentofu@3561785c48 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9c9be21d5a1fdd9d. Report an issue: GitHub.