angular/components · warning

Your project is not using the default builders for "${target

Error message

Your project is not using the default builders for "${targetName}". This means that we cannot add the configured theme to the "${targetName}" target.

What it means

The Material ng-add schematic's validateDefaultTargetBuilder checks that the workspace's build/test/serve targets use the default Angular builders (e.g. @angular-devkit/build-angular:application or browser). If the target uses a custom or third-party builder, the schematic cannot safely inject the theme path into the build configuration, so for non-build targets (like test) it only logs this warning and returns false. For the build target it throws a harder error.

Source

Thrown at src/material/schematics/ng-add/theming/theming.ts:172

    targetName === 'test' ? getProjectTestTargets(project) : getProjectBuildTargets(project);
  const isDefaultBuilder = targets.length > 0;

  // Because the build setup for the Angular CLI can be customized by developers, we can't know
  // where to put the theme file in the workspace configuration if custom builders are being
  // used. In case the builder has been changed for the "build" target, we throw an error and
  // exit because setting up a theme is a primary goal of `ng-add`. Otherwise if just the "test"
  // builder has been changed, we warn because a theme is not mandatory for running tests
  // with Material. See: https://github.com/angular/components/issues/14176
  if (!isDefaultBuilder && targetName === 'build') {
    throw new SchematicsException(
      `Your project is not using the default builders for ` +
        `"${targetName}". The Angular Material schematics cannot add a theme to the workspace ` +
        `configuration if the builder has been changed.`,
    );
  } else if (!isDefaultBuilder) {
    // for non-build targets we gracefully report the error without actually aborting the
    // setup schematic. This is because a theme is not mandatory for running tests.
    logger.warn(
      `Your project is not using the default builders for "${targetName}". This ` +
        `means that we cannot add the configured theme to the "${targetName}" target.`,
    );
  }

  return isDefaultBuilder;
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0411926e7d)

Solutions

1. Switch the target's builder in angular.json back to the default (@angular-devkit/build-angular:application/browser or :karma) and re-run ng add.
2. Manually add the generated theme file to your custom builder's styles config (styles: ["src/custom-theme.scss"]) after creating the theme yourself.
3. Ignore the warning if the target is 'test' — themes are not mandatory for running tests.

Example fix

// before (angular.json)
"builder": "@angular-builders/custom-webpack:browser"
// after
"builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:application"
// and add src/custom-theme.scss to "options.styles"

const cfg = workspace.projects[project].architect[targetName];
const DEFAULT_BUILDERS = [
  '@angular-devkit/build-angular:application',
  '@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser'
];
const isDefault = DEFAULT_BUILDERS.includes(cfg?.builder);
if (!isDefault) console.warn(`Manual theme wiring needed for target ${targetName}`);

When it happens

Trigger: Running `ng add @angular/material` in a workspace whose angular.json configures a non-default builder for the target named targetName (e.g. a custom webpack builder, Nx builders, or @angular-builders/* packages).

Common situations: Nx/Custom Angular CLI workspaces with swapped builders; projects using esbuild-based or webpack-custom builders; monorepos where architect targets were renamed or replaced; older projects migrated to new builders leaving stale target configs.

Related errors

• Cannot create an Angular Material theme because ${
• Cannot read "${filePath}" because it does not exist.
• No data could be found for target version: ${version}
• Could not find file for path: ${path}
• Module not found: ${modulePath}

AI-assisted analysis of angular/components@0411926e7d (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/899fd2e46e6edb5c. Report an issue: GitHub.