siyuan-note/siyuan · error

--path is required

Error message

--path is required

What it means

resolveTemplateAbs resolves a template path to an absolute path under data/templates. The error is thrown when the caller passes an empty string as the path, because there is nothing to resolve. The CLI flag --path is the only way to supply it, so an empty value means the command was invoked without the flag.

Solutions

1. Re-run the command with the --path flag set, e.g. --path my-template or an absolute path.
2. Check that the variable feeding --path is not empty in your script/config.
3. Use the flag help (`template --help`) to confirm the expected path form (absolute or relative to data/templates).

Example fix

// before
template get
// after
template get --path templates/my-template.sy

if (!path || path.trim() === "") throw new Error("--path must be set before calling template commands");

When it happens

Trigger: Running a template subcommand (e.g. `siyuan template ...`) without setting the --path flag, or setting --path "" explicitly, so resolveTemplateAbs receives p == "".

Common situations: Scripting or automating the CLI and forgetting the --path flag; copying an example command and omitting the placeholder; a config file or shell variable expanding to an empty value for --path.

Understand the failure class

Background: "no subcommand specified" and "... is required": CLI errors when a required argument is missing — this error's family across 13 libraries.

Related errors

• --output is required for docx
• path escapes templates dir
• path is required
• appearance files not found at
• assetPath is required for analyze

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@9f775e8a12 (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2ee19b3e7853465b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/cli/cmd/template.go:204

			return nil
		}
		code, err := model.CreateTemplate(name, content, overwrite)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		if code == 1 {
			return fmt.Errorf("template already exists, use --overwrite to replace: %s", name)
		}
		fmt.Printf("%s.md\n", name)
		return nil
	},
}

// resolveTemplateAbs 把模板路径解析为 data/templates 下的绝对路径，拒绝越界。
// 接受绝对路径或相对 data/templates 的相对路径。
func resolveTemplateAbs(p string) (string, error) {
	if p == "" {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("--path is required")
	}
	abs := p
	if !filepath.IsAbs(abs) {
		abs = filepath.Join(util.DataDir, "templates", p)
	}
	abs = filepath.Clean(abs)
	templatesBase := filepath.Clean(filepath.Join(util.DataDir, "templates"))
	rel, err := filepath.Rel(templatesBase, abs)
	if err != nil || strings.HasPrefix(rel, "..") || rel == ".." {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("path escapes templates dir: %s", p)
	}
	return abs, nil
}

func init() {
	templateGetCmd.Flags().String("path", "", "template path (absolute or relative to data/templates)")
	templateRemoveCmd.Flags().String("path", "", "template path (absolute or relative to data/templates)")
	templateRenderCmd.Flags().String("path", "", "template path (absolute or relative to data/templates)")

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