eyaltoledano/claude-task-master · error · Error

projectRoot is required for isOnDefaultBranch

Error message

projectRoot is required for isOnDefaultBranch

What it means

isOnDefaultBranch() in git-utils.js requires an explicit projectRoot directory argument to run git commands against. The function throws immediately when the argument is missing, null, or empty because git operations need a working directory to resolve the current and default branches. This is a defensive guard ensuring callers don't silently query the wrong repository.

Source

Thrown at scripts/modules/utils/git-utils.js:264

		for (const defaultName of commonDefaults) {
			if (branches.includes(defaultName)) {
				return defaultName;
			}
		}

		return null;
	}
}

/**
 * Check if we're currently on the default branch
 * @param {string} projectRoot - Directory to check (required)
 * @returns {Promise<boolean>} True if on default branch
 */
async function isOnDefaultBranch(projectRoot) {
	if (!projectRoot) {
		throw new Error('projectRoot is required for isOnDefaultBranch');
	}

	try {
		const currentBranch = await getCurrentBranch(projectRoot);
		const defaultBranch = await getDefaultBranch(projectRoot);
		return currentBranch && defaultBranch && currentBranch === defaultBranch;
	} catch (error) {
		return false;
	}
}

/**
 * Check and automatically switch tags based on git branch if enabled
 * This runs automatically during task operations, similar to migration
 * @param {string} projectRoot - Project root directory (required)
 * @param {string} tasksPath - Path to tasks.json file
 * @returns {Promise<void>}
 */

View on GitHub (pinned to c0c98d367c)

Solutions

1. Pass a resolved absolute projectRoot string as the first argument
2. Resolve the root via findProjectRoot(process.cwd()) or equivalent before calling
3. Ensure the calling code path always has a valid projectRoot (validate upstream)

Example fix

// before
const onDefault = await isOnDefaultBranch();
// after
const projectRoot = findProjectRoot(process.cwd());
const onDefault = await isOnDefaultBranch(projectRoot);

if (!projectRoot || typeof projectRoot !== 'string') throw new Error('projectRoot must be a non-empty string before calling isOnDefaultBranch');

function hasProjectRoot(root) { return typeof root === 'string' && root.length > 0; }

try {
  const onDefault = await isOnDefaultBranch(projectRoot);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.includes('projectRoot is required')) {
    projectRoot = findProjectRoot(process.cwd());
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling isOnDefaultBranch() with no argument, undefined, null, or an empty string as the projectRoot parameter.

Common situations: Refactoring callers that dropped the projectRoot argument; calling the utility from code that hasn't resolved the project root yet; passing a config object's missing projectRoot field.

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

• projectRoot is required for checkAndAutoSwitchGitTag
• 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/df94f7d962bcd12c. Report an issue: GitHub.