santifer/career-ops · error · Error

runSeedScan: unknown seed "${seedId}"

Error message

runSeedScan: unknown seed "${seedId}"

What it means

runSeedScan(seedId, ...) looks up the seed source in the SEED_SOURCES registry (e.g. 'yc', 'a16z') and throws a plain Error if the key is absent. This is a programmer/CLI-usage error: the caller asked for a seed portfolio the scanner does not know about.

Source

Thrown at scan-ats-full.mjs:446

const SEED_PROVIDERS = [greenhouse, lever, ashby];

/**
 * Scan a VC portfolio seed source and return matching job offers.
 * Companies are converted to PortalEntry shape, then each ATS provider's
 * detect() is tried in order (greenhouse → lever → ashby). The first hit
 * wins and its fetch() is called — identical to how portals.yml tracked
 * companies flow through scan.mjs.
 *
 * @param {string}   seedId      Key from SEED_SOURCES (e.g. 'yc').
 * @param {object}   opts        Parsed CLI options.
 * @param {object}   ctx         HTTP context from makeHttpCtx().
 * @param {Set}      seenUrls    Shared dedup set (mutated in place).
 * @param {string}   label       Human-readable source label for logs.
 * @returns {Promise<object[]>}  New job offers (same shape as ATS scan offers).
 */
export async function runSeedScan(seedId, opts, ctx, seenUrls, label) {
  const source = SEED_SOURCES[seedId];
  if (!source) throw new Error(`runSeedScan: unknown seed "${seedId}"`);

  let companies;
  try {
    companies = await source.fetch();
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(`⚠️  ${seedId}: could not fetch portfolio — ${err.message}`);
    return [];
  }

  // Apply the --limit cap here too (by slug, consistent with sampleCompanies).
  const capped = opts.limit < companies.length
    ? (opts.shuffle
      ? (() => { const c = companies.slice(); for (let i = c.length - 1; i > 0; i--) { const j = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1)); [c[i], c[j]] = [c[j], c[i]]; } return c.slice(0, opts.limit); })()
      : companies.slice(0, opts.limit))
    : companies;

  const cutoff = Date.now() - opts.sinceDays * 86_400_000;
  const offers = [];

View on GitHub (pinned to 9b17a8ac97)

Solutions

1. Check available seeds: inspect SEED_SOURCES keys in scan-ats-full.mjs or run the scanner's --help/list-seeds to see registered names.
2. Fix the seedId to exactly match a registry key (case-sensitive): 'yc', 'a16z'.
3. Trim whitespace: seedId.trim() before calling.
4. If you need a new seed source, register it in SEED_SOURCES with a fetch function in seeds/vc-portfolios.mjs.

Example fix

// before
await runSeedScan('Sequoia', opts, ctx, seen, 'sequoia'); // throws

// after
const known = Object.keys(SEED_SOURCES);
if (!known.includes(seedId.trim())) {
  throw new Error(`Unknown seed '${seedId}'. Available: ${known.join(', ')}`);
}
await runSeedScan(seedId.trim(), opts, ctx, seen, label);

const VALID_SEEDS = new Set(Object.keys(SEED_SOURCES));
function validateSeedId(seedId) {
  const id = String(seedId).trim();
  if (!VALID_SEEDS.has(id)) {
    throw new Error(`Unknown seed '${seedId}'. Available: ${[...VALID_SEEDS].join(', ')}`);
  }
  return id;
}

function isKnownSeed(seedId) {
  return Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(SEED_SOURCES, String(seedId).trim());
}

try {
  await runSeedScan(seedId, opts, ctx, seen, label);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.includes('unknown seed')) {
    console.error(err.message);
    console.error(`Available seeds: ${Object.keys(SEED_SOURCES).join(', ')}`);
    process.exit(2);
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a seedId that is not a key in SEED_SOURCES, such as 'sequoia' when only 'yc' and 'a16z' are registered; a typo like 'YC' (case-sensitive) or 'y-combinator'; an empty string.

Common situations: User runs `scan-ats-full.mjs --seeds sequoia` with a name not in the registry; case mismatch; trailing whitespace in the seed name from shell expansion; an outdated career-ops install that predates a newly added seed.

Related errors

• payload must include at least one of: cv, articleDigest
• payload.cv requires { section, entry }
• payload.cv requires a non-empty dedupKey (used for dedup/ide
• payload.articleDigest requires { entry }
• Application answer state must be one of: ${[...VALID_STATES]

AI-assisted analysis of santifer/career-ops@9b17a8ac97 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7aad84f25d826c02. Report an issue: GitHub.