siyuan-note/siyuan · error

--new is required

Error message

--new is required

What it means

Argument validation in the cobra tagRename RunE: fires when the --new flag is empty after --old passed. Renaming a tag requires both the current label (--old) and the replacement label (--new); supplying only --old is the faulting usage.

Solutions

1. Add the target: `siyuan tag rename --old oldtag --new newtag`
2. Ensure the new label is non-empty and correctly quoted
3. Confirm flag order and spelling (`--new`, not `--label`)

Example fix

// before
siyuan tag rename --old oldtag
// after
siyuan tag rename --old oldtag --new newtag

if [ -z "$NEW" ]; then echo "--new is required" >&2; exit 2; fi
siyuan tag rename --old "$OLD" --new "$NEW"

if ! siyuan tag rename --old "$OLD" --new "$NEW"; then
  echo "rename failed; check --new value" >&2
fi

When it happens

Trigger: Running `siyuan tag rename --old oldtag` without `--new`, or with `--new ""`.

Common situations: Forgetting the second flag in interactive use; empty result from a script variable that computes the new name; truncation of a long command line.

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

• --label is required
• --old is required
• --av and --ids are required
• --av, --key, --item and --value are required
• --block is required for non-detached rows

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2bae2cfdf95cc7c2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/cli/cmd/tag.go:85

		if err := model.RemoveTag(label); err != nil {
			return err
		}
		model.AppendPushReloadTagEntry()
		return nil
	},
}

var tagRenameCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:   "rename --old <old-label> --new <new-label>",
	Short: "Rename a tag",
	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		oldLabel, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("old")
		newLabel, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("new")
		if oldLabel == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--old is required")
		}
		if newLabel == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--new is required")
		}

		if dryRun {
			fmt.Printf("[dry-run] Would rename tag \"%s\" to \"%s\"\n", oldLabel, newLabel)
			return nil
		}

		if err := model.RenameTag(oldLabel, newLabel); err != nil {
			return err
		}
		model.AppendPushReloadTagEntry()
		return nil
	},
}

func printTagTable(tags []string) {
	w := tabwriter.NewWriter(os.Stdout, 0, 0, 2, ' ', 0)
	fmt.Fprintln(w, "LABEL")

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