plandex-ai/plandex · error

invalid value for --debug: %v

Error message

invalid value for --debug: %v

What it means

This error comes from autoDebugValue.Set, the flag.Value parser for the --debug flag. strconv.Atoi failed to parse the provided string as an integer, so the flag is rejected before any command runs. It is a pure input-validation error.

Source

Thrown at app/cli/cmd/plan_exec_helpers.go:238

// AutoDebugValue implements the flag.Value interface
type autoDebugValue struct {
	value *int
}

func newAutoDebugValue(p *int) *autoDebugValue {
	*p = 0 // Default to 0 (disabled)
	return &autoDebugValue{p}
}

func (f *autoDebugValue) Set(s string) error {
	if s == "" {
		*f.value = defaultAutoDebugTries
		return nil
	}
	v, err := strconv.Atoi(s)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid value for --debug: %v", err)
	}
	if v <= 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("--debug value must be greater than 0")
	}
	*f.value = v
	return nil
}

func (f *autoDebugValue) String() string {
	if f.value == nil {
		return "0"
	}
	return strconv.Itoa(*f.value)
}

func (f *autoDebugValue) Type() string {
	return "int"
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Pass a positive integer, e.g. --debug=3
2. Remove quotes, spaces, or units from the value
3. If no value is wanted, omit the flag (empty string falls back to defaultAutoDebugTries)

Example fix

// before
plandex tell -f plan.md --debug=true
// after
plandex tell -f plan.md --debug=3

v, err := strconv.Atoi(debugArg)
if err != nil || v <= 0 {
    return fmt.Errorf("--debug must be a positive integer")
}

func isValidDebugVal(s string) bool {
    v, err := strconv.Atoi(s)
    return err == nil && v > 0
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --debug with a non-numeric value, e.g. --debug=abc, --debug=1.5, or --debug with trailing whitespace/units.

Common situations: Typing a word instead of a number, copying a value with quotes or spaces, assuming --debug takes a boolean like 'true' when it expects a positive integer retry count.

Understand the failure class

Background: "unknown output mode", "invalid value for flag", "expects true/false": fixing invalid flag value errors in CLI tools — this error's family across 24 libraries.

Related errors

• --debug value must be greater than 0
• invalid context index: %s
• no context found with name: %s
• run command requires exactly one file path argument
• invalid value: %s

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/811f0afee8550d0b. Report an issue: GitHub.