EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin · error · Error

${repoRoot} is not the compound-engineering repository

Error message

${repoRoot} is not the compound-engineering repository

What it means

assertCompoundEngineeringRepo guards the codex:dev workflow: it reads <repoRoot>/package.json and requires its name field to be exactly "compound-engineering". If it is not, the library concludes the resolved git toplevel is not this repository and refuses to proceed, because the workflow only makes sense inside the plugin's own checkout.

Source

Thrown at src/dev/codex-dev.ts:126

function resolveHomePath(value: string, home: string): string {
  if (value === "~") return home
  if (value.startsWith("~/")) return path.join(home, value.slice(2))
  return path.resolve(value)
}

async function readJson(filePath: string): Promise<Record<string, unknown>> {
  try {
    return JSON.parse(await fs.readFile(filePath, "utf8")) as Record<string, unknown>
  } catch (error) {
    throw new Error(`Could not read ${filePath}: ${error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error)}`)
  }
}

async function assertCompoundEngineeringRepo(repoRoot: string): Promise<void> {
  const packageJson = await readJson(path.join(repoRoot, "package.json"))
  if (packageJson.name !== "compound-engineering") {
    throw new Error(`${repoRoot} is not the compound-engineering repository`)
  }
  const pluginJson = await readJson(path.join(repoRoot, ".codex-plugin", "plugin.json"))
  if (pluginJson.name !== "compound-engineering") {
    throw new Error(`${repoRoot} is not the compound-engineering repository`)
  }

  const skills = pluginJson.skills
  if (typeof skills !== "string" || path.resolve(repoRoot, skills) !== path.join(repoRoot, "skills")) {
    throw new Error("The Codex plugin manifest does not point at this repository's skills directory")
  }

  const unsupported = ["apps", "hooks", "mcpServers"].filter((key) => pluginJson[key] !== undefined)
  if (unsupported.length > 0) {
    throw new Error(
      `Local skill mode cannot represent Codex runtime components: ${unsupported.join(", ")}. Update the developer workflow before using it.`,
    )
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to c9c10f8c75)

Solutions

1. cd out of the nested repo to a directory inside the actual compound-engineering checkout and re-run.
2. Check package.json at the repo root: jq .name package.json — it must be "compound-engineering".
3. If you are in a fork/monorepo, restore the root package.json name or run against a real checkout of this repository.

Example fix

// before: package.json in the resolved repo root
{ "name": "my-fork" }
// after
{ "name": "compound-engineering" }

import { readFile } from "node:fs/promises"
const pkg = JSON.parse(await readFile("package.json", "utf8"))
if (pkg.name !== "compound-engineering") {
  throw new Error("Not the compound-engineering checkout; cd there first")
}

function isCompoundRepo(pkg: unknown): pkg is { name: "compound-engineering" } {
  return typeof pkg === "object" && pkg !== null && (pkg as { name?: unknown }).name === "compound-engineering"
}

try {
  await runCodexDev(command)
} catch (error) {
  if ((error as Error).message.includes("is not the compound-engineering repository")) {
    console.error("cd into the compound-engineering checkout and retry")
  } else throw error
}

When it happens

Trigger: resolveCodexDevContext or inspectLocalCollection runs git rev-parse --show-toplevel from the current directory and the resulting repo root's package.json has a name other than "compound-engineering" (src/dev/codex-dev.ts:126).

Common situations: Running the dev command from a subdirectory of an unrelated nested git repo (e.g. a vendored dependency or docs repo inside the checkout); a fork renamed the package; a monorepo where the inner repo root is not the plugin root; running inside a temp fixture repo during tests.

Related errors

• Cleanup currently supports only the compound-engineering plu
• Unknown cleanup target: ${target}. Use one of: ${cleanupTarg
• Unknown permissions mode: ${permissions}
• Unknown target: ${targetName}
• Unknown permissions mode: ${permissions}

AI-assisted analysis of EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin@c9c10f8c75 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/00b524836351014f. Report an issue: GitHub.