eyaltoledano/claude-task-master · error

Received invalid task object from AI.

Error message

Received invalid task object from AI.

What it means

In full-update mode, updateTaskById takes the AI response's mainResult.task and merges it over the existing task. If the AI returned no task object (or a non-object), the code throws rather than writing garbage into tasks.json. It indicates the AI service response did not match the expected schema.

Source

Thrown at scripts/modules/task-manager/update-task-by-id.js:470

				}

				// Display AI usage telemetry for CLI users
				if (outputFormat === 'text' && aiServiceResponse.telemetryData) {
					displayAiUsageSummary(aiServiceResponse.telemetryData, 'cli');
				}

				// Return the updated task
				return {
					updatedTask: taskToUpdate,
					telemetryData: aiServiceResponse.telemetryData,
					tagInfo: aiServiceResponse.tagInfo
				};
			}

			// Full update mode: Use structured data directly
			const aiTask = aiServiceResponse.mainResult?.task;
			if (!aiTask || typeof aiTask !== 'object')
				throw new Error('Received invalid task object from AI.');

			const updatedTask = {
				...aiTask,
				dependencies: aiTask.dependencies ?? [],
				priority: aiTask.priority ?? null,
				details: aiTask.details ?? null,
				testStrategy: aiTask.testStrategy ?? null
			};
			if (!updatedTask.title || !updatedTask.description)
				throw new Error('Updated task missing required fields.');
			// Preserve ID if AI changed it
			if (updatedTask.id !== taskId) {
				report('warn', `AI changed task ID. Restoring original ID ${taskId}.`);
				updatedTask.id = taskId;
			}
			// Preserve status if AI changed it
			if (
				updatedTask.status !== taskToUpdate.status &&

View on GitHub (pinned to c0c98d367c)

Solutions

1. Retry the update; transient AI failures often resolve on a second call
2. Switch to a stronger model (e.g. the research model) via --research or provider config
3. Reduce the size/complexity of the task details being sent
4. Check the AI provider status/credentials if responses are consistently malformed

function isAiTask(res) {
  return !!res && typeof res === 'object' && !!res.mainResult &&
    typeof res.mainResult.task === 'object' && res.mainResult.task !== null &&
    typeof res.mainResult.task.title === 'string';
}

try {
  await updateTaskById(...);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === 'Received invalid task object from AI.') {
    // retry with stronger model / inspect raw response
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: The AI provider returns a malformed/empty mainResult (e.g. truncated JSON, refusal message, wrong response shape) during update-task-by-id full update.

Common situations: Weak models returning prose instead of structured JSON, API errors surfaced as partial responses, very long tasks exceeding the model's output context, or misconfigured AI provider/baseURL returning an error payload.

Related errors

• Parsed AI response for updated tasks was not an array.
• Updated task missing required fields.
• ${result.message} || Update failed for task ${taskId}. The s
• File storage does not support updateTaskWithPrompt. Client-s
• File storage does not support expandTaskWithPrompt. Client-s

AI-assisted analysis of eyaltoledano/claude-task-master@c0c98d367c (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5f8bbc5c361ef092. Report an issue: GitHub.