What causes "[impeccable live] {msg} " in pbakaus/impeccable?

Re-run with a valid explicit target: `impeccable live --target ./path-to-app`.

[impeccable live] {msg}

Error message

[impeccable live] {msg}

What it means

`enter_live_root` validates the `--target` argument consumed from the CLI args before booting live mode. If `consume_target_arg` returns an error (missing or malformed target), the message is printed with the `[impeccable live]` prefix and the process exits with code 1. It is a CLI usage error, not a runtime failure.

Source

Thrown at crates/live/src/roots.rs:491

            }
            let v = v.to_string();
            argv.remove(i);
            return Ok(Some(v));
        }
        i += 1;
    }
    Ok(None)
}

/// JS: enterLiveRoot(cwd). Consumes `--target` from `args`, resolves the
/// governing roots, and moves `io.cwd` onto the appRoot. `Err(code)` means
/// the process must exit with that code (the message is already on stderr);
/// `Ok(None)` is the selection-ambiguity case (stay put).
pub fn enter_live_root(args: &mut Vec<String>, io: &mut Io) -> Result<Option<RootsManifest>, i32> {
    let target = match consume_target_arg(args) {
        Ok(t) => t,
        Err(msg) => {
            io.err(&format!("[impeccable live] {}\n", msg));
            return Err(1);
        }
    };
    let cwd = io.cwd.to_string_lossy().into_owned();
    let resolved = resolve_live_roots(&cwd, target.as_deref(), io);
    let Some(manifest) = resolved.manifest else {
        return Ok(None);
    };
    let app_root = manifest.app_root.clone();
    if jsp::resolve(&cwd, &[]) != jsp::resolve(&app_root, &[]) {
        if !is_dir(&app_root) {
            io.err(&format!(
                "[impeccable live] resolved app root does not exist: {} (stale roots manifest? re-run the live boot, or pass --target <path>)\n",
                app_root
            ));
            return Err(1);
        }
        io.cwd = std::path::PathBuf::from(&app_root);

View on GitHub (pinned to 2bc2879276)

Solutions

Re-run with a valid explicit target: `impeccable live --target ./path-to-app`.
Run `impeccable live --help` to see accepted target argument forms.
If a shell variable supplies the path, quote it and verify it is non-empty: `echo "$TARGET"`.
Run from the project/app directory and omit `--target` to use auto-detection.

Example fix

// before
impeccable live --target=
// after
impeccable live --target ./webapp

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

[ -n "$TARGET" ] && [ -d "$TARGET" ] && impeccable live --target "$TARGET" || echo 'TARGET must be a non-empty existing path'

Prevention

Always quote --target values in scripts so empty variables are caught early.
Verify the target path exists before passing it.
Check `impeccable live --help` for the accepted target format.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `impeccable live` with a `--target` value that fails target-argument validation — e.g. an empty `--target`, an unexpected extra positional argument, or a value that cannot be resolved to a live root.

Common situations: Typos like `--target=` with no value; passing a flag where a path is expected; scripting the command with a variable that expands to empty; copying a command example that uses an unsupported target form.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Unknown argument", "Invalid value", and "must be one of": invalid CLI argument errors explained — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pbakaus/impeccable@2bc2879276 (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/117c77a4a3429b89. Report an issue: GitHub.