paperclipai/paperclip · error

--lines must be a positive integer.

Error message

--lines must be a positive integer.

What it means

Thrown by the `service logs` action when `--lines` (`-n`) cannot be parsed as a positive integer. It mirrors the CLI's positive-int validation: Number.parseInt must succeed and the result must be >= 1.

Source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/service.ts:220

  common(service.command("restart").description("Hot-restart the service while preserving active agent runs"))
    .option("--wait", "Wait for active runs to drain instead of adopting them", false)
    .option("--expected-version <version>", "Require the restarted server to report this version")
    .action(async (opts) => output(await restartManagedService({ instanceId: opts.instance, expectedVersion: opts.expectedVersion, waitForDrain: opts.wait }), opts.json));

  common(service.command("status").description("Show supervisor and health status")).action(async (opts) => {
    const manager = await resolveManager(opts); if (!manager) return;
    const instanceId = resolvePaperclipInstanceId(opts.instance);
    output({ ...await manager.status(), health: await probeHealth(instanceId) }, opts.json);
  });

  common(service.command("logs").description("Show service logs"))
    .option("-f, --follow", "Follow new log output", false)
    .option("-n, --lines <count>", "Number of recent lines", "100")
    .action(async (opts) => {
      const manager = await resolveManager(opts); if (!manager) return;
      const lines = Number.parseInt(opts.lines, 10);
      if (!Number.isInteger(lines) || lines < 1) throw new Error("--lines must be a positive integer.");
      await manager.logs(opts.follow, lines);
    });
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 67001ec6eb)

Solutions

1. Pass a positive integer: `paperclipai service logs -n 200`.
2. If you want few lines, use `1` as the minimum; `0` is not supported.
3. Ensure shell variables feeding `-n` are set and numeric.

Example fix

# before
paperclipai service logs -n 0
# after
paperclipai service logs -n 100

function parseLines(v: string): number {
  const n = Number.parseInt(v, 10);
  if (!Number.isInteger(n) || n < 1) throw new Error('--lines must be a positive integer.');
  return n;
}

function isPositiveInt(v: unknown): v is number {
  return typeof v === 'number' && Number.isInteger(v) && v >= 1;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `paperclipai service logs -n <count>` with a value like `0`, `-5`, `3.5`, `abc`, or empty. The producer is `Number.parseInt(opts.lines, 10)` followed by `!Number.isInteger(lines) || lines < 1` at service.ts:220.

Common situations: Operators typing `--lines 0` meaning 'none', copy-pasting a count with units, or a wrapper passing an unset variable.

Related errors

• Invalid ${label}: ${value}
• --payload must be a JSON object
• ${name} must be a JSON object
• Invalid ${name} JSON: ${err instanceof Error ? err.message :
• --file is required

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@67001ec6eb (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/028424bf08bfe9bc. Report an issue: GitHub.