phacility/phabricator · error · PhutilArgumentUsageException

No identity "%s" exists. When selecting identities with "--r

Error message

No identity "%s" exists. When selecting identities with "--raw", the entire identity must match exactly.

What it means

With `--raw`, rebuild-identities looks identities up by exact match on the raw identity string (identityNameRaw — the full author/committer string exactly as it appeared in commit metadata, e.g. `Alice <alice@example.com>`). The query results are keyed by getIdentityNameRaw and every `--raw` value must be one of those keys; a value with no exact match raises this PhutilArgumentUsageException.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/repository/management/PhabricatorRepositoryManagementRebuildIdentitiesWorkflow.php:167

    $emails = $args->getArg('email');
    if ($emails) {
      $rebuilt_anything = true;
      $this->rebuildEmails($emails);
    }

    if ($all_identities || $raw) {
      $rebuilt_anything = true;

      if ($raw) {
        $identities = id(new PhabricatorRepositoryIdentityQuery())
          ->setViewer($viewer)
          ->withIdentityNames($raw)
          ->execute();

        $identities = mpull($identities, null, 'getIdentityNameRaw');
        foreach ($raw as $raw_identity) {
          if (!isset($identities[$raw_identity])) {
            throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
              pht(
                'No identity "%s" exists. When selecting identities with '.
                '"--raw", the entire identity must match exactly.',
                $raw_identity));
          }
        }

        $identity_list = $identities;
      } else {
        $identity_query = id(new PhabricatorRepositoryIdentityQuery())
          ->setViewer($viewer);

        $identity_list = new PhabricatorQueryIterator($identity_query);

        $this->logInfo(
          pht('REBUILD'),
          pht('Rebuilding all existing identities.'));
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

Look up the exact stored string and pass it verbatim, e.g. `SELECT identityNameRaw FROM repository_identity WHERE identityNameRaw LIKE '%alice%';` or inspect the identity in the Diffusion/People UI, then quote it in the shell.
If exact strings are awkward to gather, use `--all-identities` (optionally scoped with `--repository`) instead of `--raw`.
If the identity should exist but does not, reparse the relevant commits first so identity rows get created, then retry.

Example fix

# before
./bin/repository rebuild-identities --raw 'alice@example.com'
# Usage exception: No identity "alice@example.com" exists...

# after: pass the full raw string exactly as stored
./bin/repository rebuild-identities --raw 'Alice <alice@example.com>'

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# Verify the exact raw string exists before passing --raw
raw='Alice <alice@example.com>'
count=$(mysql -N -B phabricator_repository -e \
  "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM repository_identity WHERE identityNameRaw = '$raw'")
[ "$count" -ge 1 ] || { echo "identity not found (exact match required)" >&2; exit 1; }
./bin/repository rebuild-identities --raw "$raw"

Prevention

Treat `--raw` as byte-exact: copy the full raw string (display name plus email in angle brackets) from the database or UI.
When unsure of the exact string, fall back to `--all-identities` scoped by `--repository`.
Ensure commits carrying the identity have been parsed first so the identity row exists.

When it happens

Trigger: Passing only the email when the stored raw string is `Name <email>`; wrong casing, extra whitespace, or different display name; a raw string for which no PhabricatorRepositoryIdentity row exists (commits carrying it were never parsed).

Common situations: Assuming `--raw` accepts a bare email or a fuzzy substring; identities created only after commit parsing, so brand-new or never-parsed authors have no row; cut-and-paste from `git log` that mangles whitespace or unicode names.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/59c18b83f8c53437. Report an issue: GitHub.