paperclipai/paperclip · error · Error

This command requires --yes when not running in an interacti

Error message

This command requires --yes when not running in an interactive terminal.

What it means

Thrown by confirmDangerousAction() when a destructive operation (skills reset/remove, skills agent clear) is invoked without --yes and either stdin or stdout is not a TTY. The function cannot prompt for confirmation in a non-interactive context, so it aborts rather than silently proceeding. This protects CI/agent runs from accidental destructive actions.

Source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/client/skills.ts:1013

async function readBodyFile(filePath: string): Promise<string> {
  if (filePath === "-") {
    return readStdin();
  }
  return readFile(filePath, "utf8");
}

async function readStdin(): Promise<string> {
  const chunks: Buffer[] = [];
  for await (const chunk of process.stdin) {
    chunks.push(Buffer.isBuffer(chunk) ? chunk : Buffer.from(String(chunk)));
  }
  return Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8");
}

async function confirmDangerousAction(yes: boolean | undefined, message: string): Promise<void> {
  if (yes) return;
  if (!process.stdin.isTTY || !process.stdout.isTTY) {
    throw new Error("This command requires --yes when not running in an interactive terminal.");
  }
  const rl = createInterface({ input, output });
  try {
    const answer = (await rl.question(`${message} Type yes to continue: `)).trim().toLowerCase();
    if (answer !== "yes") {
      throw new Error("Aborted.");
    }
  } finally {
    rl.close();
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 67001ec6eb)

Solutions

1. Add --yes to pre-confirm the destructive action in non-interactive runs.
2. If you genuinely need the prompt, run inside an allocated PTY (e.g. `script -qec`).
3. For agent automation, set --yes explicitly rather than relying on TTY detection.

Example fix

# before
paperclipai skills remove my-skill
# after
paperclipai skills remove my-skill --yes

const isInteractive = Boolean(process.stdin.isTTY && process.stdout.isTTY);
const args = ["skills", "remove", ref];
if (!isInteractive) args.push("--yes");
await run(args);

function isInteractiveTty(): boolean {
  return Boolean(process.stdin.isTTY && process.stdout.isTTY);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `skills reset`, `skills remove`, or `skills agent clear` in CI, a pipe, a detached agent run, or any context where stdin/stdout is redirected — without passing --yes.

Common situations: Paperclip task/agent runs (PAPERCLIP_TASK_ID set), cron jobs, shell pipelines, Docker exec without a tty, or `nohup`/`&` invocations.

Related errors

• `paperclipai connect` is interactive. For scripts, pass --ap
• Deletion requires --yes.
• Refusing to delete without --yes
• Deletion requires --confirm <secretId> matching the secret I
• Aborted.

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@67001ec6eb (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9f652ff5c00f26b9. Report an issue: GitHub.