Yeachan-Heo/oh-my-codex · error · Error

mission.md is required inside mission-dir: ${missionFile}

Error message

mission.md is required inside mission-dir: ${missionFile}

What it means

loadAutoresearchMissionContract requires a mission.md file directly inside the mission directory; if existsSync(join(missionDir,'mission.md')) fails it throws with the expected file path. mission.md carries the mission instructions and is mandatory alongside sandbox.md.

Source

Thrown at src/autoresearch/contracts.ts:224

  return {
    pass: result.pass,
    ...(result.score === undefined ? {} : { score: result.score }),
  };
}

export async function loadAutoresearchMissionContract(missionDirArg: string): Promise<AutoresearchMissionContract> {
  const missionDir = resolve(missionDirArg);
  if (!existsSync(missionDir)) {
    throw contractError(`mission-dir does not exist: ${missionDir}`);
  }

  const repoRoot = readGit(missionDir, ['rev-parse', '--show-toplevel']);
  ensurePathInside(repoRoot, missionDir);

  const missionFile = join(missionDir, 'mission.md');
  const sandboxFile = join(missionDir, 'sandbox.md');
  if (!existsSync(missionFile)) {
    throw contractError(`mission.md is required inside mission-dir: ${missionFile}`);
  }
  if (!existsSync(sandboxFile)) {
    throw contractError(`sandbox.md is required inside mission-dir: ${sandboxFile}`);
  }

  const missionContent = await readFile(missionFile, 'utf-8');
  const sandboxContent = await readFile(sandboxFile, 'utf-8');
  const sandbox = parseSandboxContract(sandboxContent);
  const missionRelativeDir = relative(repoRoot, missionDir) || basename(missionDir);
  const missionSlug = slugifyMissionName(missionRelativeDir);

  return {
    missionDir,
    repoRoot,
    missionFile,
    sandboxFile,
    missionRelativeDir,
    missionContent,

View on GitHub (pinned to 3ad79a8a6f)

Solutions

1. Create mission.md inside the mission directory with the mission instructions.
2. Check exact casing/spelling: it must be 'mission.md'.
3. If templating missions, ensure the template includes both mission.md and sandbox.md.

Example fix

# before
missions/m1/
  sandbox.md

# after
missions/m1/
  mission.md
  sandbox.md

import { existsSync } from 'node:fs';
import { join } from 'node:path';

if (!existsSync(join(missionDir, 'mission.md'))) {
  throw new Error('mission.md missing — add mission instructions before loading');
}
const contract = await loadAutoresearchMissionContract(missionDir);

try {
  await loadAutoresearchMissionContract(dir);
} catch (err) {
  if ((err as Error).message.includes('mission.md is required')) {
    // create mission.md inside the mission dir (exact casing)
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: A mission directory that contains only sandbox.md (or other files) but no mission.md; wrong file name such as mission.txt or Mission.md on case-sensitive filesystems.

Common situations: Authoring a new mission and forgetting the instructions file; case-sensitivity issues on Linux after developing on macOS/Windows; renamed files during refactors.

Related errors

• sandbox.md is required inside mission-dir: ${sandboxFile}
• mission-dir does not exist: ${missionDir}
• No autoresearch-goal mission found at ${repoRelative(cwd, pa
• autoresearch_resume_manifest_missing
• autoresearch_candidate_missing:${candidateFile}

AI-assisted analysis of Yeachan-Heo/oh-my-codex@3ad79a8a6f (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0fa1d68744bdaa23. Report an issue: GitHub.