eyaltoledano/claude-task-master · error · Error

Error: Invalid status value

Error message

Error: Invalid status value: ${newStatus}. Use one of: ${TASK_STATUS_OPTIONS.join(', ')}

What it means

setTaskStatus validates the requested status against isValidTaskStatus and the TASK_STATUS_OPTIONS list before touching any files. If newStatus is not one of the allowed enum values, it throws immediately. This guards against typos and unsupported custom statuses.

Solutions

1. Use a valid status exactly as listed by the error: pending, in-progress, done, deferred, cancelled, etc.
2. Lowercase and normalize the status string before calling the API
3. Check the project's TASK_STATUS_OPTIONS configuration if custom statuses were added

Example fix

// before
await setTaskStatus(path, '1', 'In Progress');
// after
await setTaskStatus(path, '1', 'in-progress');

const VALID = ['pending', 'in-progress', 'done', 'deferred', 'cancelled'];
if (!VALID.includes(newStatus)) {
  throw new Error(`Status must be one of: ${VALID.join(', ')}; got '${newStatus}'`);
}

function isValidStatus(s) {
  return typeof s === 'string' && ['pending', 'in-progress', 'done', 'deferred', 'cancelled'].includes(s);
}

try {
  await setTaskStatus(tasksPath, id, status);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.startsWith('Error: Invalid status value')) {
    console.error(`'${status}' is invalid; use: pending|in-progress|done|deferred|cancelled`);
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling setTaskStatus (or setTaskStatusDirect / the MCP result path) with newStatus values like 'done ', 'in-progress' when the vocabulary expects 'in_progress', 'completed', 'Done', or an arbitrary custom status string.

Common situations: Case or separator typos ('In-Progress' vs 'in-progress'); scripting with statuses from another tracker (Jira's 'To Do'); old versions using a different status vocabulary.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• ${authResult.error || 'Interactive authentication failed'}
• INVALID_PARAMETER
• All subtasks for task
• All tasks parameter must be an array
• API key environment variable name is required

AI-assisted analysis of eyaltoledano/claude-task-master@c0c98d367c (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0c576766077de326. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at scripts/modules/task-manager/set-task-status.js:36

} from '../utils.js';
import updateSingleTaskStatus from './update-single-task-status.js';

/**
 * Set the status of a task
 * @param {string} tasksPath - Path to the tasks.json file
 * @param {string} taskIdInput - Task ID(s) to update
 * @param {string} newStatus - New status
 * @param {Object} options - Additional options (mcpLog for MCP mode, projectRoot for tag resolution)
 * @param {string} [options.projectRoot] - Project root path
 * @param {string} [options.tag] - Optional tag to override current tag resolution
 * @param {string} [options.mcpLog] - MCP logger object
 * @returns {Object|undefined} Result object in MCP mode, undefined in CLI mode
 */
async function setTaskStatus(tasksPath, taskIdInput, newStatus, options = {}) {
	const { projectRoot, tag } = options;
	try {
		if (!isValidTaskStatus(newStatus)) {
			throw new Error(
				`Error: Invalid status value: ${newStatus}. Use one of: ${TASK_STATUS_OPTIONS.join(', ')}`
			);
		}
		// Determine if we're in MCP mode by checking for mcpLog
		const isMcpMode = !!options?.mcpLog;

		// Only display UI elements if not in MCP mode
		if (!isMcpMode) {
			console.log(
				boxen(chalk.white.bold(`Updating Task Status to: ${newStatus}`), {
					padding: 1,
					borderColor: 'blue',
					borderStyle: 'round'
				})
			);
		}

		log('info', `Reading tasks from ${tasksPath}...`);

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