paperclipai/paperclip · warning · Error

Refusing to delete without --yes

Error message

Refusing to delete without --yes

What it means

Intentional safety guard in `paperclipai agent delete`. Commander wires `--yes` as the confirmation flag; the action handler refuses to proceed if opts.yes is falsy, before making any API call. No network request is issued, so this is a usage error, not a server error.

Source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/client/agent.ts:402

          const ctx = resolveCommandContext(opts);
          const payload = updateAgentSchema.parse(parseJson(opts.payloadJson));
          const updated = await ctx.api.patch<Agent>(apiPath`/api/agents/${agentId}`, payload);
          printOutput(updated, { json: ctx.json });
        } catch (err) {
          handleCommandError(err);
        }
      }),
  );

  addCommonClientOptions(
    agent
      .command("delete")
      .description("Delete an agent")
      .argument("<agentId>", "Agent ID")
      .option("--yes", "Confirm deletion")
      .action(async (agentId: string, opts: AgentDeleteOptions) => {
        try {
          if (!opts.yes) throw new Error("Refusing to delete without --yes");
          const ctx = resolveCommandContext(opts);
          const result = await ctx.api.delete(apiPath`/api/agents/${agentId}`);
          printOutput(result, { json: ctx.json });
        } catch (err) {
          handleCommandError(err);
        }
      }),
  );

  for (const [name, path, description] of [
    ["pause", "pause", "Pause an agent"],
    ["resume", "resume", "Resume an agent"],
    ["approve", "approve", "Approve a pending agent"],
    ["terminate", "terminate", "Terminate an agent"],
    ["heartbeat:invoke", "heartbeat/invoke", "Invoke an agent heartbeat"],
    ["claude-login", "claude-login", "Trigger Claude login for an agent"],
  ] as const) {
    addCommonClientOptions(

View on GitHub (pinned to 67001ec6eb)

Solutions

1. Add `--yes` to confirm: `paperclipai agent delete <agentId> --yes`.
2. If scripting, set --yes explicitly in the wrapper.
3. If you did not mean to delete, this throw protected you — no further action needed.

Example fix

// before
paperclipai agent delete agt_123
// after
paperclipai agent delete agt_123 --yes

// In a wrapper script, assert confirmation before invoking.
function buildDeleteCmd(agentId: string, confirmed: boolean): string[] {
  if (!confirmed) throw new Error('Refusing to build delete command without confirmation');
  return ['agent', 'delete', agentId, '--yes'];
}

try { await runAgentDelete(agentId, { yes: true }); }
catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message === 'Refusing to delete without --yes') {
    // impossible — we passed yes; surface as a logic bug
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `paperclipai agent delete <agentId>` without `--yes`. The default for --yes is undefined/false, so any invocation missing the flag throws.

Common situations: Operator forgot the flag. Script wrapping the CLI that did not propagate confirmation. Muscle memory from a different CLI that uses `-y` or `--force`.

Related errors

• Agent not found: ${agentRef}
• Failed to create API key
• --payload must be a JSON object
• --file is required
• Challenge secret is required. Pass --token or --token-env.

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@67001ec6eb (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a81022a5c55473f0. Report an issue: GitHub.