affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

task_description is required

Error message

task_description is required

What it means

normalizeExecutionRecord in scripts/lib/skill-evolution/tracker.js validates every field of an execution record before persisting it. It throws 'task_description is required' when the taskDescription argument is not a non-empty string (missing, non-string, or whitespace-only). The library refuses to record executions without a human-readable description of the task performed.

Solutions

1. Pass a non-empty descriptive string as the taskDescription argument to record()/normalizeExecutionRecord.
2. If the value comes from CLI/env/config, default or trim it before calling: (raw ?? '').trim() and fall back to a meaningful label if empty.
3. If a structured object was passed by mistake, serialize the relevant fields to a string first (e.g. JSON.stringify or a formatter).

Example fix

// before
tracker.record({ skillId, skillVersion, taskDescription: undefined, outcome: 'success' });

// after
const taskDescription = (process.argv.find(a => a.startsWith('--task='))?.slice(7) ?? 'unspecified task').trim();
tracker.record({ skillId, skillVersion, taskDescription, outcome: 'success' });

function assertTaskDescription(taskDescription) {
  if (typeof taskDescription !== 'string' || taskDescription.trim().length === 0) {
    throw new Error('task_description must be a non-empty string before calling record()');
  }
}

function hasTaskDescription(v) {
  return typeof v === 'string' && v.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  tracker.record(record);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message === 'task_description is required') {
    console.error('Execution record missing task_description; supply a non-empty string describing the task.');
    process.exitCode = 1;
    return;
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling record() (or normalizeExecutionRecord directly) with taskDescription undefined/null, with a non-string value (e.g. an object from a parsed options bag), or with a whitespace-only string like '' or ' '.

Common situations: Hook scripts building the record from CLI args or env vars that omit --task-description; programmatically constructing the record object and forgetting the field; upstream tools that pass structured task metadata instead of a string; templated scripts where the placeholder was never filled in.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• skill_id is required
• skill_version is required
• a confirmed nonempty coordinate is required
• must be a number
• outcome must be one of success, failure, or partial

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@8321021c54 (2026-09-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6e9b07e8c6603bbe. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at scripts/lib/skill-evolution/tracker.js:66

  }

  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) {
    throw new Error('task_description is required');
  }

  if (!VALID_OUTCOMES.has(outcome)) {
    throw new Error('outcome must be one of success, failure, or partial');
  }

  if (userFeedback !== null && !VALID_FEEDBACK.has(userFeedback)) {
    throw new Error('user_feedback must be accepted, corrected, rejected, or null');
  }

  if (Number.isNaN(Date.parse(recordedAt))) {
    throw new Error('recorded_at must be an ISO timestamp');
  }

  return {
    skill_id: skillId,
    skill_version: skillVersion,
    task_description: taskDescription,

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