tobi/qmd · error · Error

--chunk-strategy must be "auto" or "regex" (got "${s}")

Error message

--chunk-strategy must be "auto" or "regex" (got "${s}")

What it means

Thrown by parseChunkStrategy when --chunk-strategy is given a value other than the two supported strategies: 'auto' (AST-aware chunking for code files) or 'regex' (default).

Source

Thrown at src/cli/qmd.ts:2100

  const empty = width - filled;
  const bar = "█".repeat(filled) + "░".repeat(empty);
  return bar;
}

function parseEmbedBatchOption(name: string, value: unknown): number | undefined {
  if (value === undefined) return undefined;
  const parsed = Number(value);
  if (!Number.isInteger(parsed) || parsed < 1) {
    throw new Error(`${name} must be a positive integer`);
  }
  return parsed;
}

function parseChunkStrategy(value: unknown): ChunkStrategy | undefined {
  if (value === undefined) return undefined;
  const s = String(value);
  if (s === "auto" || s === "regex") return s;
  throw new Error(`--chunk-strategy must be "auto" or "regex" (got "${s}")`);
}

// --timeout for `qmd embed`: a cap on the whole embed session, in minutes. Returns
// the value in milliseconds, or undefined to use the default. 0 disables the cap.
function parseEmbedTimeoutOption(value: unknown): number | undefined {
  if (value === undefined) return undefined;
  const minutes = Number(value);
  if (!Number.isFinite(minutes) || minutes < 0) {
    throw new Error(`--timeout must be a non-negative number of minutes (0 = no limit)`);
  }
  return minutes * 60 * 1000;
}

function ensureModelsConfiguredForCli(): { embed: string; generate: string; rerank: string } {
  try {
    const config = loadConfig();
    const models = resolveModels(config.models);
    const current = config.models ?? {};

View on GitHub (pinned to dbfd0b4736)

Solutions

1. Use `--chunk-strategy auto` or `--chunk-strategy regex`
2. Omit the flag to keep the default regex strategy
3. Check `qmd collection add --help` for the current accepted values

Example fix

# before
qmd collection add . --name docs --chunk-strategy ast
# after
qmd collection add . --name docs --chunk-strategy auto

if (!['auto', 'regex'].includes(strategy)) throw new Error(`invalid chunk strategy ${strategy}`);

const isChunkStrategy = (v: unknown): v is 'auto' | 'regex' => v === 'auto' || v === 'regex';

When it happens

Trigger: Running `qmd collection add . --chunk-strategy ast` or `--chunk-strategy treesitter`; passing an empty string via a script variable.

Common situations: Guessing strategy names from other tools (ast, semantic, ts); older docs or muscle memory from versions before 'auto' existed; quoting mistakes leaving a stray space.

Related errors

• ${name} must be a positive integer
• --timeout must be a non-negative number of minutes (0 = no l
• Collection not found: ${collection}\n${hint}
• No indexed documents found.\nIndex a collection with 'qmd co
• Refusing to initialize a local index in $HOME. The global in

AI-assisted analysis of tobi/qmd@dbfd0b4736 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e8eb69e7134d2141. Report an issue: GitHub.