phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Specify an object to test rules for with "--object".

Error message

Specify an object to test rules for with "--object".

What it means

PhutilArgumentUsageException thrown by HeraldTestManagementWorkflow::execute() (the 'bin/herald test' workflow) when the --object argument is missing or empty. The object monogram is mandatory because the whole workflow dry-runs Herald rules against one concrete object; nothing is looked up before this check.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/herald/management/HeraldTestManagementWorkflow.php:34

          array(
            'name' => 'object',
            'param' => 'object',
            'help' => pht('Run rules on this object.'),
          ),
          array(
            'name' => 'type',
            'param' => 'type',
            'help' => pht('Run rules for this content type.'),
          ),
        ));
  }

  public function execute(PhutilArgumentParser $args) {
    $viewer = $this->getViewer();

    $object_name = $args->getArg('object');
    if (!strlen($object_name)) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht('Specify an object to test rules for with "--object".'));
    }

    $objects = id(new PhabricatorObjectQuery())
      ->setViewer($viewer)
      ->withNames(array($object_name))
      ->execute();
    if (!$objects) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Unable to load specified object ("%s").',
          $object_name));
    }
    $object = head($objects);

    $adapters = HeraldAdapter::getAllAdapters();

    $can_select = array();

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Pass the object monogram: bin/herald test --object T123 (usually together with --type, e.g. --type maniphest.task).
2. In scripts, guard first: OBJECT=${OBJECT:?"--object is required"}.
3. Run 'bin/herald help test' to see the accepted arguments.

Example fix

# before
bin/herald test --type differential.revision

# after
bin/herald test --object D456 --type differential.revision

$object_name = $args->getArg('object');
if (!strlen($object_name)) {
  // print usage with example (bin/herald test --object T123 --type ...)
  // and exit before any query runs
}

function hasObjectArgument(PhutilArgumentParser $args) {
  return strlen((string)$args->getArg('object')) > 0;
}

try {
  (new HeraldTestManagementWorkflow())->execute($args);
} catch (PhutilArgumentUsageException $ex) {
  // usage error: echo message + help; safe, side-effect-free retry
  exit(2);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running 'bin/herald test' with no --object flag, or with an empty value because a shell variable expanded to nothing. The strlen() check on getArg('object') fires before PhabricatorObjectQuery runs.

Common situations: Copy-pasting an example command that omitted the flag; scripts passing an unset $OBJECT; assuming --type alone is enough to run rules.

Related errors

• Specify a content type to run rules for. For this object, va
• Specify a rule to edit with "--rule <id|monogram>".
• Use flags to specify at least one edit to apply to the rule
• Specify a commit to extract the diff from.
• Specify an atomizer class with %s.

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/44e7ee8dad25ad82. Report an issue: GitHub.