santifer/career-ops · error · Error

--${name} is required

Error message

--${name} is required

What it means

Validation in the `req` helper inside `buildRow` (assessment-log.mjs `add` subcommand). The required fields — `company`, `platform`, `subject` — must each be present and non-empty (after trim). Empty/missing values throw `--<name> is required` so the TSV row is never written with a blank mandatory column.

Source

Thrown at assessment-log.mjs:113

  }
  return {
    assessments: rows,
    aggregates: { byPlatform },
    quality: {
      total: rows.length,
      staleFlagged,
      withoutScore: rows.filter(r => r.score === null).length,
      withoutThreshold: rows.filter(r => r.threshold === null).length,
      malformedLines: malformed,
    },
  };
}

// --- Append (`add` subcommand) ---
export function buildRow(fields, today) {
  const req = (name) => {
    const v = String(fields[name] ?? '').trim();
    if (!v) throw new Error(`--${name} is required`);
    if (v.includes('\t') || v.includes('\n')) throw new Error(`--${name} must not contain tabs or newlines`);
    return v;
  };
  const opt = (name) => {
    const v = String(fields[name] ?? '').trim();
    if (v.includes('\t') || v.includes('\n')) throw new Error(`--${name} must not contain tabs or newlines`);
    return v || '-';
  };
  const optPct = (name) => {
    const v = String(fields[name] ?? '').trim();
    if (!v) return '-';
    if (parsePct(v) === null) throw new Error(`--${name} must be a percentage (e.g. 70 or 70%), got "${v}"`);
    return v;
  };
  return [
    today, req('company'), opt('report'), req('platform'), req('subject'),
    optPct('threshold'), optPct('score'), opt('stale') === '-' ? '' : opt('stale'),
  ].join('\t');

View on GitHub (pinned to 9b17a8ac97)

Solutions

1. Always supply `--company`, `--platform`, and `--subject` with non-empty values when running `add`.
2. Run `node assessment-log.mjs add --help` (or read usage) to see required vs optional fields.
3. Validate in your caller before invoking: `['company','platform','subject'].forEach(k => { if (!fields[k]?.trim()) throw ... })`.
4. Generate the command only after all three values are confirmed non-empty.
5. Add a test asserting the missing-field rejection.

Example fix

// before
node assessment-log.mjs add --platform leetcode --subject arrays
// after
node assessment-log.mjs add --company acme --platform leetcode --subject arrays --threshold 70 --score 85

const REQUIRED = ['company', 'platform', 'subject'];
function ensureRequired(fields) {
  for (const k of REQUIRED) {
    if (!String(fields[k] ?? '').trim()) throw new Error(`--${k} is required`);
  }
}

function hasRequiredAssessmentFields(f) {
  return ['company', 'platform', 'subject'].every(k =>
    typeof f[k] === 'string' && f[k].trim() !== '');
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking the `add` subcommand without `--company`, `--platform`, or `--subject`; passing `--company ""` or whitespace-only; programmatically calling `buildRow({ company: '', platform: 'leetcode', subject: 'algo' }, today)`.

Common situations: User forgets one of the three mandatory flags; agent generates the command but a field is empty; shell quoting collapses a value to empty; copying a template command and missing a field.

Related errors

• --${name} must not contain tabs or newlines
• --${name} must be a percentage (e.g. 70 or 70%), got "${v}"
• Application answer state must be one of: ${[...VALID_STATES]
• Missing value for ${arg}
• Missing required field: ${context}.${key}

AI-assisted analysis of santifer/career-ops@9b17a8ac97 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/10ef14826c3503eb. Report an issue: GitHub.