Budibase/budibase · error · HTTPError

Project name is required.

Error message

Project name is required.

What it means

validateProjectName rejects any name that is not a non-empty, non-whitespace string. Called unconditionally by create and conditionally by update (when a name property is present), throwing this 400 HTTPError.

Source

Thrown at packages/server/src/sdk/workspace/projects/crud.ts:44

  _rev: string
  name?: string
  description?: string
  color?: string
}

type Rollback = () => Promise<void>

const normaliseProjectColor = (color?: string) => {
  try {
    return helpers.normaliseSafeCssColor(color)
  } catch {
    throw new HTTPError("Project color is invalid.", 400)
  }
}

const validateProjectName = (name?: string) => {
  if (typeof name !== "string" || !name.trim()) {
    throw new HTTPError("Project name is required.", 400)
  }
}

const isProjectId = (id?: string) =>
  id?.startsWith(prefixed(DocumentType.PROJECT))

export async function fetch(): Promise<Project[]> {
  const db = context.getWorkspaceDB()
  const docs = await db.allDocs<Project>(
    docIds.getProjectParams(null, { include_docs: true })
  )

  return docs.rows
    .map(row => row.doc)
    .filter((doc): doc is Project => !!doc)
    .sort((a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name))
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a81a902e9a)

Solutions

1. Provide a non-empty trimmed name string when creating a project
2. On update, omit the name property entirely rather than sending an empty value
3. Trim client-side and require the field in your form before submitting
4. Check payload construction for undefined values leaking into name

Example fix

// before
await sdk.projects.update({ _id, _rev, name: "" })
// after
await sdk.projects.update({ _id, _rev }) // omit name, or pass a real name

const nameIsValid = (n: unknown): n is string =>
  typeof n === "string" && n.trim().length > 0
if (!nameIsValid(input.name)) throw new Error("Project name is required")

const hasName = (v: unknown): v is { name: string } =>
  typeof v === "object" && v !== null && "name" in v &&
  typeof (v as { name: unknown }).name === "string" && (v as { name: string }).name.trim() !== ""

try {
  await sdk.projects.create({ name })
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes("name is required")) {
    // surface a required-field error to the user
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: create({ name: undefined }) or name: "" or " "; update({ _id, _rev, name: "" }) — sending the name key with an empty value triggers validation even though name is optional in updates.

Common situations: Forms allowing blank submission; API clients sending name: "" to 'clear' a name (not supported); destructuring payloads where name is absent on create; whitespace-only input passing a naive required check.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Missing required field" and "field is required" errors: why libraries reject payloads that omit mandatory fields — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Project id is required.
• Invalid bookmark query
• Invalid limit query
• Limit query must be between 1 and 100
• Invalid ${queryName} query

AI-assisted analysis of Budibase/budibase@a81a902e9a (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0e90af89ddce98b3. Report an issue: GitHub.