affaan-m/ECC · error

skill execution payload must be an object

Error message

skill execution payload must be an object

What it means

Thrown first in normalizeExecutionRecord when the input is not a plain object: null, undefined, a primitive, or an array all fail. This is the entry guard before any field is read.

Source

Thrown at scripts/lib/skill-evolution/tracker.js:47

  return path.join(resolveHomeDir(options.homeDir), '.claude', 'state', 'skill-runs.jsonl');
}

function toNullableNumber(value, fieldName) {
  if (value === null || typeof value === 'undefined') {
    return null;
  }

  const numericValue = Number(value);
  if (!Number.isFinite(numericValue)) {
    throw new Error(`${fieldName} must be a number`);
  }

  return numericValue;
}

function normalizeExecutionRecord(input, options = {}) {
  if (!input || typeof input !== 'object' || Array.isArray(input)) {
    throw new Error('skill execution payload must be an object');
  }

  const skillId = input.skill_id || input.skillId;
  const skillVersion = input.skill_version || input.skillVersion;
  const taskDescription = input.task_description || input.task_attempted || input.taskAttempted;
  const outcome = input.outcome;
  const recordedAt = input.recorded_at || options.now || new Date().toISOString();
  const userFeedback = input.user_feedback || input.userFeedback || null;

  if (typeof skillId !== 'string' || skillId.trim().length === 0) {
    throw new Error('skill_id is required');
  }

  if (typeof skillVersion !== 'string' || skillVersion.trim().length === 0) {
    throw new Error('skill_version is required');
  }

  if (typeof taskDescription !== 'string' || taskDescription.trim().length === 0) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

1. Pass a single parsed plain object.
2. If data may be a string, JSON.parse first and assert typeof === 'object' && !Array.isArray.
3. Loop over arrays and record one at a time.

Example fix

// before
recordSkillRun(rawJsonString);

// after
const parsed = JSON.parse(rawJsonString);
recordSkillRun(parsed);

function asRecord(input) {
  if (typeof input === 'string') input = JSON.parse(input);
  if (!input || typeof input !== 'object' || Array.isArray(input)) {
    throw new TypeError('expected a single record object');
  }
  return input;
}
recordSkillRun(asRecord(raw));

function isPlainObject(v) {
  return v != null && typeof v === 'object' && !Array.isArray(v);
}

try {
  recordSkillRun(input);
} catch (err) {
  if (/payload must be an object/.test(err.message)) {
    recordSkillRun(JSON.parse(input));
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: recordSkillRun(null); recordSkillRun('{"skill_id":...}') (passing a JSON string instead of parsing it); recordSkillRun([record1, record2]) (passing an array); recordSkillRun(JSON.parse(badData)) where parse yielded a non-object.

Common situations: Forgetting JSON.parse on a serialized payload; forwarding a raw network body string; passing a collection instead of a single record.

Related errors

• ${fieldName} must be a number
• skill_id is required
• skill_version is required
• task_description is required
• outcome must be one of success, failure, or partial

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/58ddc9462a3a6eb0. Report an issue: GitHub.