eyaltoledano/claude-task-master · error

UNEXPECTED_ERROR

UNEXPECTED_ERROR

Error message

${error.message}

What it means

The outermost try/catch of nextTaskDirect (next-task.js:129-138) catches anything escaping the core action wrapper — e.g. a throw from the caching utility call itself or from logging — and returns UNEXPECTED_ERROR. Reaching this means the inner action's own error handling did not cover the failure.

Source

Thrown at mcp-server/src/core/direct-functions/next-task.js:134

				error: {
					code: 'CORE_FUNCTION_ERROR',
					message: error.message || 'Failed to find next task'
				}
			};
		}
	};

	// Use the caching utility
	try {
		const result = await coreNextTaskAction();
		log.info('nextTaskDirect completed.');
		return result;
	} catch (error) {
		log.error(`Unexpected error during nextTask: ${error.message}`);
		return {
			success: false,
			error: {
				code: 'UNEXPECTED_ERROR',
				message: error.message
			}
		};
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c0c98d367c)

Solutions

1. Inspect `error.message` in the response to identify the underlying exception.
2. Confirm you pass a plain args object: nextTaskDirect({}, log) at minimum, with tasksJsonPath set.
3. Reinstall/rebuild the package — missing or mismatched imports in scripts/modules can throw outside the guarded region.
4. Check your custom log object implements info/error without throwing.

Example fix

// before
await nextTaskDirect(null, log); // UNEXPECTED_ERROR

// after
const result = await nextTaskDirect({ tasksJsonPath: tasksPath, projectRoot }, log);
if (!result.success) console.error(result.error.code, result.error.message);

if (args == null || typeof args !== 'object') throw new TypeError('nextTaskDirect args must be an object');
if (typeof log?.info !== 'function' || typeof log?.error !== 'function') throw new TypeError('log must implement info/error');

function isUnexpectedError(result) {
  return result != null && result.success === false && result.error?.code === 'UNEXPECTED_ERROR';
}

try {
  const result = await nextTaskDirect(args ?? {}, log);
  if (isUnexpectedError(result)) console.error('unexpected:', result.error.message);
} catch (e) {
  console.error('nextTaskDirect threw synchronously:', e.message);
}

When it happens

Trigger: An exception thrown outside coreNextTaskAction's internal try/catch, such as a failure in the awaited wrapper machinery around line 126, a throwing logger, or a programming error (undefined function, bad args shape) that bypasses the guarded code path.

Common situations: Passing a non-object (null/undefined) as `args` so destructuring throws; a corrupted installation where an imported helper is missing; a logger implementation that throws on log.info/error.

Related errors

• ANALYZE_CORE_ERROR
• UNEXPECTED_ERROR
• CORE_FUNCTION_ERROR
• CORE_FUNCTION_ERROR
• UNEXPECTED_ERROR

AI-assisted analysis of eyaltoledano/claude-task-master@c0c98d367c (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/536f29e8b8100918. Report an issue: GitHub.