Excellent error messages from command line tools, according to ChatGPT

In late Dec 2022, I played around with ChatGPT in an evening.

Since it was on the top of my mind¹, I decided try to nudge ChatGPT into the direction of giving me a useful answer about error message design for command line tools.²

Now, tell me what an excellent error message from a command line tool should contain.
An excellent error message from a command line tool should contain the following elements:
A clear and concise description of the error: The error message should explain what went wrong and why the command failed.
A suggestion for how to fix the error: If possible, the error message should provide a suggestion for how the user can fix the error and try the command again.
The error code: It can be helpful to include an error code or other identifier that can be used to look up more information about the error.
The context in which the error occurred: Providing information about the context in which the error occurred (e.g., the command that was being run, the arguments that were provided) can help the user understand the root cause of the error and how to fix it.
A link to additional resources: If there are additional resources that can help the user understand and fix the error (e.g., documentation, forums), it can be helpful to include a link to these resources in the error message.

I’ll admit this was mildly impressive on the first skim-read. Looking closer, it became clear that the response is actually flawed in multiple ways and the model made some assumptions that are not completely accurate.

Overall, this is amusing enough to me that I decided to document it here.

Further reading#

Further reading