What causes "event is required" in chenhg5/cc-connect?

Add the `event` key to the hook entry in config.toml (e.g. event = "before_agent")

event is required

Error message

event is required

What it means

validateHookConfig in core/hooks.go checks each HookConfig before a HookManager accepts it. Every hook must declare which event it listens for; an empty Event field is rejected with this error. This runs when NewHookManager is constructed (e.g. from parsed config.toml hooks entries).

Source

Thrown at core/hooks.go:109

		if err := validateHookConfig(h); err != nil {
			slog.Warn("hooks: skipping invalid config", "project", project, "error", err)
			continue
		}
		valid = append(valid, h)
	}
	return &HookManager{
		hooks:       valid,
		project:     project,
		shell:       shell,
		shellFlag:   shellFlag,
		shellProfile: shellProfile,
		client:      &http.Client{},
	}
}

func validateHookConfig(h HookConfig) error {
	if h.Event == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("event is required")
	}
	switch HookHandlerType(h.Type) {
	case HookHandlerCommand:
		if h.Command == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("command is required for type=command")
		}
	case HookHandlerHTTP:
		if h.URL == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("url is required for type=http")
		}
		if !strings.HasPrefix(h.URL, "http://") && !strings.HasPrefix(h.URL, "https://") {
			return fmt.Errorf("url must start with http:// or https://")
		}
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unknown handler type %q (must be command or http)", h.Type)
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

Add the `event` key to the hook entry in config.toml (e.g. event = "before_agent")
Check the field name spelling matches the HookConfig struct's expected key
Set h.Event programmatically before constructing the HookManager
Consult the docs for the list of valid hook event names

Example fix

// before (config.toml)
[[hooks]]
type = "command"
command = "/scripts/notify.sh"
// after
[[hooks]]
event = "after_agent"
type = "command"
command = "/scripts/notify.sh"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

for i, h := range hooks {
    if h.Event == "" {
        return fmt.Errorf("hooks[%d]: event is required", i)
    }
}

Try / catch

mgr, err := NewHookManager(hooks)
if err != nil {
    slog.Error("invalid hook config", "err", err)
    return fmt.Errorf("hook config: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Always include the `event` key in every [[hooks]] config entry
Validate hook config at deploy time, not just at daemon start
Keep a copy-paste-ready hook template in docs
Strict TOML decoding surfaces misspelled keys — prefer it

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a NewHookManager with a hook entry whose Event field is the empty string — e.g. a [[hooks]] table in config.toml missing the event key, or a programmatically built HookConfig with Event left unset.

Common situations: config.toml hook entry missing the `event` key; typo of the field name so it fails to unmarshal; building hooks in code and forgetting to set Event.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is required", "must be set", "missing required field": configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/634894f2505314f0. Report an issue: GitHub.