siyuan-note/siyuan · error

--path is required

Error message

--path is required

What it means

Thrown by the `history get` subcommand when the `--path` flag is empty. The path identifies a specific historical file entry inside the history store; it is passed straight to `model.GetDocHistoryContent`. Without a path the model cannot locate a history snapshot to read.

Source

Thrown at kernel/cli/cmd/history.go:95

		for _, ts := range timestamps {
			items := model.FullTextSearchHistoryItems(ts, query, box, op, typ)
			fmt.Printf("[%s] %d item(s)\n", ts, len(items))
			for _, item := range items {
				fmt.Printf("  %-8s %s  %s\n", item.Op, truncate(item.Title, 60), item.Path)
			}
		}
		fmt.Printf("\nPage %d/%d, %d total\n", page, pageCount, totalCount)
	}
	return nil
}

var historyGetCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:   "get --path <path>",
	Short: "Get historical file content",
	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		historyPath, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("path")
		if historyPath == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--path is required")
		}

		_, _, content, _, err := model.GetDocHistoryContent(historyPath, "", false)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		fmt.Print(content)
		return nil
	},
}

var historyRollbackCmd = &cobra.Command{
	Use:   "rollback --path <path>",
	Short: "Rollback a document to historical version",
	RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
		historyPath, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("path")
		if historyPath == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("--path is required")

View on GitHub (pinned to 251596fc0d)

Solutions

1. Run `siyuan history list` first to obtain the history entry path
2. Pass it: `siyuan history get --path <historyPath>`

Example fix

// before
siyuan history get
// after
siyuan history get --path 2024-01/history/20240101120000-abc/edit/20240101130000-abc.sy

if historyPath == "" {
    // list first, then select
    out, _ := cmd.Output("siyuan", "history", "list")
    _ = out
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `siyuan history get` with no `--path`. The RunE reads the flag and returns the error before calling `model.GetDocHistoryContent(historyPath, "", false)`.

Common situations: Forgetting that the history path (not a doc ID) is required; not knowing the history path format; confusing this with `history list` which needs no path.

Related errors

• --pattern is required
• --path is required
• --file is required
• --notebook is required
• --id is required

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@251596fc0d (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/adc220f970e3c93b. Report an issue: GitHub.