angular/angular-cli · warning

Skipping invalid target value; expected an object.

Error message

Skipping invalid target value; expected an object.

What it means

While parsing a project's targets (architect) section in angular.json, the reader skips any target whose value is not a JSON object and emits this warning, leaving that target undefined in the workspace.

Source

Thrown at packages/angular_devkit/core/src/workspace/json/reader.ts:283

          jsonMetadata.addChange(['projects', projectName, ...path], value);
        }
      },
    });

  return Object.assign(project, base) as ProjectDefinition;
}

function parseTargetsObject(
  projectName: string,
  targetsNode: Node,
  context: ParserContext,
): Record<string, TargetDefinition> {
  const jsonMetadata = context.metadata;
  const targets: Record<string, TargetDefinition> = Object.create(null);

  for (const [name, value] of Object.entries<JsonValue>(getNodeValue(targetsNode))) {
    if (!isJsonObject(value)) {
      context.warn('Skipping invalid target value; expected an object.', value);
      continue;
    }

    if (context.trackChanges) {
      targets[name] = createVirtualAstObject<TargetDefinition>(value, {
        include: ['builder', 'options', 'configurations', 'defaultConfiguration'],
        listener(path, value) {
          jsonMetadata.addChange(['projects', projectName, 'targets', name, ...path], value);
        },
      });
    } else {
      targets[name] = value as unknown as TargetDefinition;
    }
  }

  return targets;
}

View on GitHub (pinned to bb72145f9a)

Solutions

1. Restore the target to a full object: { "builder": "...", "options": {...} }.
2. Delete the invalid target entry if it is not needed.
3. Repair angular.json from version control or by re-running the schematic that created the target.

Example fix

// before (angular.json)
"architect": { "build": "@angular/build:application" }
// after
"architect": { "build": { "builder": "@angular/build:application", "options": {} } }

const json = require('./angular.json');
for (const [name, p] of Object.entries(json.projects ?? {})) {
  const targets = p.architect ?? p.targets ?? {};
  for (const [t, value] of Object.entries(targets)) {
    if (typeof value !== 'object' || value === null || !('builder' in value)) {
      throw new Error(`projects.${name} target '${t}' must be an object with a 'builder' property`);
    }
  }
}

function isValidTarget(v) {
  return typeof v === 'object' && v !== null && typeof v.builder === 'string';
}

When it happens

Trigger: parseTargetsObject iterates target entries and finds a value that is not an object (e.g. "build": "@angular/build:application" as a string instead of { "builder": ... }).

Common situations: Merge conflicts corrupting angular.json targets; hand-edits abbreviating a target to just its builder string; scripts writing placeholder target values.

Related errors

• Skipping invalid project value; expected an object.
• Project property "${name}" should be a string.
• Workspace extension with invalid name (${name}) found.
• Project '${projectName}' contains extension with invalid nam
• Invalid redirect status code: ${status}. Please use one of t

AI-assisted analysis of angular/angular-cli@bb72145f9a (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fe78356d0bb08068. Report an issue: GitHub.