eyaltoledano/claude-task-master · error

Task status is required

Error message

Task status is required

What it means

This error is thrown by validateTask in the storage interface when a task object has no status property. Status drives task tracking and transitions, so Task Master refuses to persist a task without one. Like the other validateTask checks it is a falsy check: null, undefined, and empty string all trigger it.

Source

Thrown at packages/tm-core/src/common/interfaces/storage.interface.ts:462

	}

	/**
	 * Utility method to validate task data before storage operations
	 * @param task - Task to validate
	 * @throws Error if task is invalid
	 */
	protected validateTask(task: Task): void {
		if (!task.id) {
			throw new Error('Task ID is required');
		}
		if (!task.title) {
			throw new Error('Task title is required');
		}
		if (!task.description) {
			throw new Error('Task description is required');
		}
		if (!task.status) {
			throw new Error('Task status is required');
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Utility method to sanitize tag names for file system safety
	 * @param tag - Tag name to sanitize
	 * @returns Sanitized tag name
	 */
	protected sanitizeTag(tag: string): string {
		return tag.replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9-_]/g, '-').toLowerCase();
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c0c98d367c)

Solutions

1. Set an explicit valid status (e.g. 'pending') on the task before persisting
2. Validate that task.status is present before calling the storage API
3. Fix field-mapping/import code that fails to copy status from the source data
4. Inspect version-migration code in case a rename left status undefined

Example fix

// before
await storage.createTask({ id: 7, title: 'Write docs', description: 'API docs' });
// after
await storage.createTask({ id: 7, title: 'Write docs', description: 'API docs', status: 'pending' });

const VALID_STATUSES = ['pending','in-progress','done','blocked','cancelled'];
if (!task?.status) throw new Error('task.status must be set before saving');
if (!VALID_STATUSES.includes(task.status)) throw new Error(`invalid status: ${task.status}`);

function hasStatus(task): task is Task & { status: string } {
  return !!task && typeof task.status === 'string' && task.status.length > 0;
}

try {
  await storage.createTask(task);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message === 'Task status is required') {
    console.error('Set task.status (e.g. "pending") before persisting.');
    return;
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Creating or saving a task object that omits status, or has status set to null/undefined/''.

Common situations: Hand-constructed task objects in scripts; deserializing tasks from external formats that lack status; refactors that renamed the status field (e.g. state or stage) leaving it unset; bulk imports with malformed rows.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Missing required field" and "field is required" errors: why libraries reject payloads that omit mandatory fields — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Task description is required
• Task ID is required
• Task title is required
• Task ${taskId} not found
• INVALID_SOURCE_TAG

AI-assisted analysis of eyaltoledano/claude-task-master@c0c98d367c (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3df2445f0e31fb35. Report an issue: GitHub.