eyaltoledano/claude-task-master · error

projectRoot is required for isBranchCheckedOut

Error message

projectRoot is required for isBranchCheckedOut

What it means

isBranchCheckedOut() returns the worktree path where a branch is checked out, or null. It first validates that projectRoot was supplied, since it delegates to getWorktrees(projectRoot) which needs a cwd for the git command.

Source

Thrown at packages/tm-core/src/common/utils/git-utils.ts:412

			});
		}

		return worktrees;
	} catch (error) {
		return [];
	}
}

/**
 * Check if a branch is checked out in any worktree
 * Returns the worktree path if found, null otherwise
 */
export async function isBranchCheckedOut(
	projectRoot: string,
	branchName: string
): Promise<string | null> {
	if (!projectRoot) {
		throw new Error('projectRoot is required for isBranchCheckedOut');
	}
	if (!branchName) {
		throw new Error('branchName is required for isBranchCheckedOut');
	}

	const worktrees = await getWorktrees(projectRoot);
	const worktree = worktrees.find((wt) => wt.branch === branchName);
	return worktree ? worktree.path : null;
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c0c98d367c)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-empty project root as the first argument
2. Resolve the root via findProjectRoot() or process.cwd() before calling
3. Fix argument order if the branch name was accidentally passed as the first parameter

Example fix

// before
await isBranchCheckedOut(branchName, projectRoot); // wrong order / empty root
// after
await isBranchCheckedOut(projectRoot, branchName);

if (!projectRoot) throw new Error('projectRoot is required');
if (!branchName) throw new Error('branchName is required');

function isNonEmptyString(v: unknown): v is string {
  return typeof v === 'string' && v.trim().length > 0;
}

try {
  const wtPath = await isBranchCheckedOut(root, branch);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.includes('projectRoot is required')) {
    throw new Error('Config error: project root not resolved');
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling isBranchCheckedOut('', 'main') or with undefined/null projectRoot — e.g. a git workflow step running before the project root was resolved.

Common situations: Automation scripts reading an empty env var or config key for the repo path; tests forgetting to seed the project root; callers mixing up argument order and passing the branch name first.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• branchName is required for isBranchCheckedOut
• projectRoot is required for isGitRepository
• projectRoot is required for getCurrentBranch
• projectRoot is required for getLocalBranches
• projectRoot is required for getRemoteBranches

AI-assisted analysis of eyaltoledano/claude-task-master@c0c98d367c (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/99dbf2e43934db0a. Report an issue: GitHub.