paperclipai/paperclip · error · Error

Unsupported seed mode "${seedMode}". Expected one of: minima

Error message

Unsupported seed mode "${seedMode}". Expected one of: minimal, full.

What it means

Thrown at the top of runWorktreeInit when opts.seedMode fails the isWorktreeSeedMode() type guard. Only two seed modes are supported: "minimal" (schema + minimal reference data) and "full" (complete database clone). The guard rejects any other string before any filesystem or DB work begins, so it is a pure input-validation failure.

Source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/worktree.ts:1627

    await releaseLock();
  }
}

export function resolveWorktreeSeedBackupEngine(seedPlan: WorktreeSeedPlan): "auto" | "javascript" {
  return seedPlan.excludedTables.length === 0 && Object.keys(seedPlan.nullifyColumns).length === 0
    ? "auto"
    : "javascript";
}

async function runWorktreeInit(opts: WorktreeInitOptions): Promise<void> {
  const cwd = process.cwd();
  const worktreeName = resolveSuggestedWorktreeName(
    cwd,
    opts.name ?? detectGitBranchName(cwd) ?? undefined,
  );
  const seedMode = opts.seedMode ?? "minimal";
  if (!isWorktreeSeedMode(seedMode)) {
    throw new Error(`Unsupported seed mode "${seedMode}". Expected one of: minimal, full.`);
  }
  const instanceId = sanitizeWorktreeInstanceId(opts.instance ?? worktreeName);
  const paths = resolveWorktreeLocalPaths({
    cwd,
    homeDir: resolveWorktreeHome(opts.home),
    instanceId,
  });
  const branding = {
    name: opts.name ?? worktreeName,
    color: opts.color ?? generateWorktreeColor(),
  };
  const sourceConfigPath = resolveSourceConfigPath(opts);
  const sourceConfig = existsSync(sourceConfigPath) ? readConfig(sourceConfigPath) : null;

  if ((existsSync(paths.configPath) || existsSync(paths.instanceRoot)) && !opts.force) {
    throw new Error(
      `Worktree config already exists at ${paths.configPath} or instance data exists at ${paths.instanceRoot}. Re-run with --force to replace it.`,
    );

View on GitHub (pinned to 67001ec6eb)

Solutions

1. Use exactly one of the supported values: `--seed-mode minimal` or `--seed-mode full`.
2. Omit the flag entirely — the default is `minimal` (opts.seedMode ?? "minimal").
3. If calling runWorktreeInit programmatically, type the option as `type SeedMode = "minimal" | "full"` and validate before the call.

Example fix

// before
paperclipai worktree:init --seed-mode minimum
// after
paperclipai worktree:init --seed-mode minimal

const SEED_MODES = ["minimal", "full"] as const;
type SeedMode = (typeof SEED_MODES)[number];
function isSeedMode(v: unknown): v is SeedMode {
  return typeof v === "string" && (SEED_MODES as readonly string[]).includes(v);
}
if (opts.seedMode != null && !isSeedMode(opts.seedMode)) {
  throw new Error(`Bad seed mode; expected ${SEED_MODES.join(", ")}`);
}

function isWorktreeSeedMode(v: string): v is "minimal" | "full" {
  return v === "minimal" || v === "full";
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing `--seed-mode` with a typo or unsupported value (e.g. "minimum", "all", "complete", "partial"); a wrapper script or programmatic caller passing an arbitrary seedMode string; CLI flag value sourced from an env var with an unexpected value.

Common situations: Misremembered flag value; copied an outdated command from docs; tab-completion or shell history inserted a wrong word.

Related errors

• Worktree config already exists at ${paths.configPath} or ins
• Cannot seed worktree database because source config was not
• Worktree selector cannot be empty.
• Could not resolve worktree "${selector}". Use a path, a list
• No Paperclip worktrees were found. Run `paperclipai worktree

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@67001ec6eb (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cfc0c74d51e4f5b9. Report an issue: GitHub.