ruvnet/ruflo · error · Error

Invalid target format: ${target}. Use agent:<id> or human:<i

Error message

Invalid target format: ${target}. Use agent:<id> or human:<id>

What it means

Thrown by parseTarget() in the claims CLI when the target string does not split into '<type>:<id>' with type being exactly 'agent' or 'human'. The split is naive (target.split(':')) so any value without a colon, with an empty id, or with a different prefix trips it.

Source

Thrown at v3/@claude-flow/claims/src/api/cli-commands.ts:174

  }

  const hours = Math.floor(diffMs / (1000 * 60 * 60));
  const minutes = Math.floor((diffMs % (1000 * 60 * 60)) / (1000 * 60));

  if (hours < 1) {
    return output.warning(`${minutes}m`);
  } else if (hours < 4) {
    return output.warning(`${hours}h ${minutes}m`);
  }

  return output.dim(`${hours}h ${minutes}m`);
}

function parseTarget(target: string): { id: string; type: ClaimantType } {
  // Format: agent:coder-1 or human:alice
  const [type, id] = target.split(':');
  if (!type || !id || (type !== 'agent' && type !== 'human')) {
    throw new Error(`Invalid target format: ${target}. Use agent:<id> or human:<id>`);
  }
  return { id, type: type as ClaimantType };
}

// ============================================
// List Subcommand
// ============================================

const listCommand: Command = {
  name: 'list',
  aliases: ['ls'],
  description: 'List issues',
  options: [
    {
      name: 'available',
      short: 'a',
      description: 'Show only unclaimed issues',
      type: 'boolean',

View on GitHub (pinned to 6b01dc5a68)

Solutions

1. Format the target as 'agent:<id>' or 'human:<id>' exactly.
2. Add input validation/suggestions in the CLI wrapper before calling parseTarget.
3. If you need a new claimant type, extend parseTarget's allowed set rather than passing an unsupported prefix.

Example fix

// before
const t = parseTarget('coder-1'); // throws 65

// after
const t = parseTarget('agent:coder-1');

function isValidTarget(t) {
  const [type, id] = String(t).split(':');
  return (type === 'agent' || type === 'human') && !!id;
}

function isValidTarget(t) {
  const [type, id] = String(t).split(':');
  return (type === 'agent' || type === 'human') && !!id;
}

null

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a target like 'coder-1' (no prefix), 'user:alice' (wrong type), 'agent:' (empty id), ':alice' (empty type), or 'agent:coder:1' (the split takes only the first colon and discards the rest as id, but extra colons leave id containing colons which is allowed — the real failure is type/id emptiness).

Common situations: User typos at the CLI; copy-pasting an issue ID instead of a target; using a custom claimant type not in {agent, human}.

Related errors

• Invalid completion type
• browser/eval: script must not be empty
• Issue not found: ${input.issueId}
• Issue ${input.issueId} is already claimed by ${issue.claimed
• Issue ${input.issueId} is not claimed by ${input.claimantId}

AI-assisted analysis of ruvnet/ruflo@6b01dc5a68 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/464786072eb2f936. Report an issue: GitHub.