paperclipai/paperclip · error

Branch name is required.

Error message

Branch name is required.

What it means

Required-argument guard in git branch name validation: the candidate branch name (after trimming) is empty, so `git check-ref-format` would have nothing meaningful to validate and the worktree branch cannot be created.

Solutions

1. Provide a branch name (e.g. --branch <name>).

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cli/src/commands/worktree.ts:628 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@01ad858492 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/313c87b65490cd46. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/worktree.ts:677

}

function detectGitBranchName(cwd: string): string | null {
  try {
    const value = execFileSync("git", ["branch", "--show-current"], {
      cwd,
      encoding: "utf8",
      stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "ignore"],
    }).trim();
    return nonEmpty(value);
  } catch {
    return null;
  }
}

function validateGitBranchName(cwd: string, branchName: string): string {
  const value = nonEmpty(branchName);
  if (!value) {
    throw new Error("Branch name is required.");
  }
  try {
    execFileSync("git", ["check-ref-format", "--branch", value], {
      cwd,
      stdio: ["ignore", "pipe", "pipe"],
    });
  } catch (error) {
    throw new Error(`Invalid branch name "${branchName}": ${extractExecSyncErrorMessage(error) ?? String(error)}`);
  }
  return value;
}

function isPrimaryGitWorktree(cwd: string): boolean {
  const workspace = detectGitWorkspaceInfo(cwd);
  return Boolean(workspace && workspace.gitDir === workspace.commonDir);
}

function resolvePrimaryGitRepoRoot(cwd: string): string {

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