siyuan-note/siyuan · error

--av and --ids are required

Error message

--av and --ids are required

What it means

The `siyuan database item remove` command requires both the target attribute-view ID (`--av`) and a comma-separated list of row IDs (`--ids`). RunE validates both at once and returns this combined error when either is empty. The ids are later split on commas and trimmed, but empty overall input is rejected first.

Solutions

1. Pass both flags: `siyuan database item remove --av <avID> --ids <id1,id2,...>`
2. Obtain row IDs from a previous database query or by inspecting the attribute view before constructing the command
3. Guard the script so it aborts when AV_ID or ROW_IDS is unset rather than invoking with empty values

Example fix

// before
siyuan database item remove --ids "$ROW_IDS"
// after
siyuan database item remove --av "$AV_ID" --ids "$ROW_IDS"

if [ -z "$AV_ID" ] || [ -z "$ROW_IDS" ]; then
  echo "both --av and --ids are required" >&2; exit 1
fi

When it happens

Trigger: Running `siyuan database item remove` with `--av` omitted, with `--ids` omitted, or both. Only overall-empty idsStr is rejected here; an ids string of only commas/whitespace passes this check.

Common situations: Building the remove command in a script where the ids variable was never populated from a previous query; forgetting to pass --av while iterating row IDs; deleting a command line's flags during manual testing.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• --av, --key, --item and --value are required
• --block is required for non-detached rows
• --av and --key are required
• --av is required
• --av, --name and --type are required

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/980d41efe04bc59e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/cli/cmd/database.go:293

		srcs := []map[string]any{src}

		if err := model.AddAttributeViewBlock(nil, srcs, avID, "", viewID, groupID, previousID, ignoreFill); err != nil {
			return err
		}
		model.AppendPushReloadAttrViewEntry(avID)
		fmt.Println("ok")
		return nil
	},
}

var databaseItemRemoveCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:   "remove --av <avID> --ids <id1,id2,...>",
	Short: "Remove rows from database",
	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		avID, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("av")
		idsStr, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("ids")
		if avID == "" || idsStr == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--av and --ids are required")
		}
		ids := strings.Split(idsStr, ",")
		for i := range ids {
			ids[i] = strings.TrimSpace(ids[i])
		}

		if dryRun {
			fmt.Printf("[dry-run] Would remove %d row(s) from database %s\n", len(ids), avID)
			return nil
		}

		if err := model.RemoveAttributeViewBlock(ids, avID); err != nil {
			return err
		}
		model.AppendPushReloadAttrViewEntry(avID)
		fmt.Println("ok")
		return nil
	},

View on GitHub (pinned to 9f775e8a12)