paperclipai/paperclip · error · Error

${name} must be a positive number.

Error message

${name} must be a positive number.

What it means

Thrown by assertRequestedCharacterLimit() when a character-limit value is provided (non-null) but is not a finite number, or is less than 1. Limits must be positive integers; zero, negatives, NaN, Infinity, and non-number types are rejected. A null/undefined value is allowed and returns early (the field is optional).

Source

Thrown at packages/plugins/plugin-llm-wiki/src/wiki/core.ts:488

    space,
    profile,
    purpose,
    requireEnabledProfile: options.requireEnabledProfile,
  });
  if (!decision.allowed) throw new Error(decision.message);
  return decision.space;
}

function assertPaperclipSourceScopePayload(input: { projectId?: string | null; rootIssueId?: string | null }) {
  if (input.projectId && input.rootIssueId) {
    throw new Error("Paperclip source scope must specify either projectId or rootIssueId, not both.");
  }
}

function assertRequestedCharacterLimit(name: string, value: unknown, max: number) {
  if (value == null) return;
  if (typeof value !== "number" || !Number.isFinite(value) || value < 1) {
    throw new Error(`${name} must be a positive number.`);
  }
  if (Math.floor(value) > max) {
    throw new Error(`${name} exceeds the hard Paperclip ingestion cap of ${max} characters.`);
  }
}

function stableSpaceId(input: { companyId: string; wikiId: string; slug: string }): string {
  const hex = createHash("md5")
    .update(`${input.companyId}:${input.wikiId}:${input.slug}`)
    .digest("hex");
  return `${hex.slice(0, 8)}-${hex.slice(8, 12)}-4${hex.slice(13, 16)}-8${hex.slice(17, 20)}-${hex.slice(20, 32)}`;
}

function normalizeLimit(value: unknown, fallback: number, max: number): number {
  if (typeof value !== "number" || !Number.isFinite(value)) return fallback;
  return Math.max(1, Math.min(max, Math.floor(value)));
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 67001ec6eb)

Solutions

1. Pass a positive finite number (>= 1), or pass null/undefined to omit the limit.
2. If accepting user input, coerce with Number() and validate Number.isFinite && >= 1 before calling.
3. Treat empty input as null (omit) rather than 0 in the form layer.

Example fix

// before
assertRequestedCharacterLimit("maxCharacters", "100", 1000); // throws — string not number
assertRequestedCharacterLimit("maxCharacters", 0, 1000); // throws — < 1
// after
assertRequestedCharacterLimit("maxCharacters", 100, 1000);
// or omit:
assertRequestedCharacterLimit("maxCharacters", null, 1000);

function assertLimit(name: string, value: unknown, max: number) {
  if (value == null) return;
  if (typeof value !== "number" || !Number.isFinite(value) || value < 1) {
    throw new Error(`${name} must be a positive number.`);
  }
}

function isPositiveFiniteNumber(v: unknown): v is number {
  return typeof v === "number" && Number.isFinite(v) && v >= 1;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing limit: 0, a negative number, NaN, Infinity, a numeric string ("100"), or an object. Passing a value from untyped config without coercion.

Common situations: UI form defaulting an empty input to 0 instead of null. Config value parsed from a query string as a string instead of a number. Off-by-one where 0 was meant to mean 'unlimited'.

Related errors

• ${name} exceeds the hard Paperclip ingestion cap of ${max} c
• Paperclip source scope must specify either projectId or root
• Paperclip ingestion profile must include at least one source
• Paperclip skills must be directories.
• Invalid SSH environment variable key: ${key}

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@67001ec6eb (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/eac1b8f2ed551ffd. Report an issue: GitHub.