django/django · error · CommandError

You must supply at least one app label when using --empty.

Error message

You must supply at least one app label when using --empty.

What it means

The --empty flag tells makemigrations to create a blank migration skeleton (no auto-detected operations), but the command needs to know which app to create it for. Without at least one positional app_label argument, there is no target directory (app/migrations/) to write the file into. The check at line 223 fires when `self.empty` is True and `app_labels` is empty.

Source

Thrown at django/core/management/commands/makemigrations.py:224

            )
        else:
            questioner = NonInteractiveMigrationQuestioner(
                specified_apps=app_labels,
                dry_run=self.dry_run,
                verbosity=self.verbosity,
                log=self.log,
            )
        # Set up autodetector
        autodetector = self.autodetector(
            loader.project_state(),
            ProjectState.from_apps(apps),
            questioner,
        )

        # If they want to make an empty migration, make one for each app
        if self.empty:
            if not app_labels:
                raise CommandError(
                    "You must supply at least one app label when using --empty."
                )
            # Make a fake changes() result we can pass to arrange_for_graph
            changes = {app: [Migration("custom", app)] for app in app_labels}
            changes = autodetector.arrange_for_graph(
                changes=changes,
                graph=loader.graph,
                migration_name=self.migration_name,
            )
            self.write_migration_files(changes)
            return

        # Detect changes
        changes = autodetector.changes(
            graph=loader.graph,
            trim_to_apps=app_labels or None,
            convert_apps=app_labels or None,
            migration_name=self.migration_name,

View on GitHub (pinned to ae25a40be0)

Solutions

Add the app label: `python manage.py makemigrations --empty myapp`
Optionally combine with -n to name it: `python manage.py makemigrations --empty myapp -n custom_data`

Example fix

// before
python manage.py makemigrations --empty
// after
python manage.py makemigrations --empty myapp -n custom_data

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

from django.core.management import call_command

app_labels = ["myapp"]  # must be non-empty when empty=True
if not app_labels:
    raise ValueError("At least one app label is required with --empty")
call_command("makemigrations", *app_labels, empty=True)

Type guard

def has_app_labels(app_labels) -> bool:
    """True if at least one app label is provided for --empty mode."""
    return bool(app_labels) and all(isinstance(a, str) and a for a in app_labels)

Try / catch

from django.core.management import call_command
from django.core.management.base import CommandError

try:
    call_command("makemigrations", empty=True)
except CommandError as e:
    if "supply at least one app label" in str(e):
        call_command("makemigrations", "myapp", empty=True)
    else:
        raise

Prevention

Always pair --empty with an explicit app label argument
Use shell completion or aliases that include the app label by default

When it happens

Trigger: Running `python manage.py makemigrations --empty` with no app label arguments. Also via `call_command('makemigrations', empty=True)` with no positional args.

Common situations: Developer wants a hand-written data migration but forgets to specify the app, or assumes --empty applies to all apps.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of django/django@ae25a40be0 (2026-08-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3dc4f2d33d856291. Report an issue: GitHub.