What causes "Source worktree selection cancelled." in paperclipai/paperclip?

Re-run the command and either pick an entry or pass --from to skip the prompt.

paperclipai/paperclip · warning · Error

Source worktree selection cancelled.

Error message

Source worktree selection cancelled.

What it means

Thrown by promptForSourceEndpoint when the user cancels the @clack/prompts select widget (Esc or Ctrl+C) while choosing a source worktree for merge-history. p.isCancel(selection) returns true. This is a user-initiated abort surfaced as a thrown Error so the CLI exits non-zero with a clear reason rather than proceeding with an undefined selection.

Source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/worktree.ts:2889

  const excluded = excludeWorktreePath ? path.resolve(excludeWorktreePath) : null;
  const currentEndpoint = resolveCurrentWorktreeEndpoint();
  const choices = toMergeSourceChoices(process.cwd())
    .filter((choice) => choice.hasPaperclipConfig || choice.isCurrent)
    .filter((choice) => path.resolve(choice.worktree) !== excluded)
    .map((choice) => ({
      value: choice.isCurrent ? "__current__" : choice.worktree,
      label: choice.branchLabel,
      hint: `${choice.worktree}${choice.isCurrent ? " (current)" : ""}`,
    }));
  if (choices.length === 0) {
    throw new Error("No Paperclip worktrees were found. Run `paperclipai worktree:list` to inspect the repo worktrees.");
  }
  const selection = await p.select<string>({
    message: "Choose the source worktree to import from",
    options: choices,
  });
  if (p.isCancel(selection)) {
    throw new Error("Source worktree selection cancelled.");
  }
  if (selection === "__current__") {
    return currentEndpoint;
  }
  return resolveWorktreeEndpointFromSelector(selection, { allowCurrent: true });
}

async function applyMergePlan(input: {
  sourceStorages: ConfiguredStorage[];
  targetStorage: ConfiguredStorage;
  targetDb: ClosableDb;
  company: ResolvedMergeCompany;
  plan: Awaited<ReturnType<typeof collectMergePlan>>["plan"];
}) {
  const companyId = input.company.id;

  return await input.targetDb.transaction(async (tx) => {
    const importedProjectIds = input.plan.projectImports.map((project) => project.source.id);

View on GitHub (pinned to 67001ec6eb)

Solutions

Re-run the command and either pick an entry or pass --from to skip the prompt.
If running in CI/non-TTY, always supply --from and --to explicitly so no interactive prompt is needed.
Use --yes alongside explicit flags for fully non-interactive runs.

Example fix

// before (interactive, cancelled)
paperclipai worktree:merge-history
// after (non-interactive)
paperclipai worktree:merge-history --from feature-x --to current --apply --yes

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

try {
  await runMergeHistory(opts);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message === "Source worktree selection cancelled.") {
    // user-initiated cancel; exit cleanly
    process.exit(0);
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Run merge-history with --from/--to/--yes in non-interactive environments to skip the select prompt entirely.
Treat the literal cancellation message as a control-flow signal if you wrap the CLI in a parent process.
Ensure a TTY is attached when interactive prompts are expected.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `paperclipai worktree:merge-history` without --from, waiting for the 'Choose the source worktree to import from' prompt, then pressing Esc or Ctrl+C.

Common situations: A developer opens the interactive picker, realizes the wrong source is listed, and bails out. Or a terminal session where Ctrl+C is sent mid-prompt. Also triggered by non-TTY environments where @clack/prompts auto-cancel.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@67001ec6eb (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fdc62240a9d8b1a4. Report an issue: GitHub.