What causes "Project ${project.name} has multiple environments (${slugs}). Pass an environment name (e.g. `mastra env db create --kind ...`) or use --shared to attach a project-scoped database." in mastra-ai/mastra?

Pass the target environment explicitly: `mastra env db create --kind ...`.

mastra-ai/mastra · error · Error

Project ${project.name} has multiple environments (${slugs})

Error message

Project ${project.name} has multiple environments (${slugs}). Pass an environment name (e.g. `mastra env db create <env> --kind ...`) or use --shared to attach a project-scoped database.

What it means

When a project has multiple environments, resolveDefaultEnvironment() cannot pick a default safely in non-interactive mode (or with --json), so it throws listing all environment slugs and asking the caller to pass an environment name or use --shared. Interactive sessions instead prompt with production pre-selected.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/commands/db/db.ts:364

export async function resolveDefaultEnvironment(
  token: string,
  orgId: string,
  project: Project,
  opts: { json?: boolean } = {},
): Promise<Environment> {
  const environments = await fetchEnvironments(token, orgId, project.id);

  if (environments.length === 0) {
    throw new Error(`Project ${project.name} has no environments. Create one with: mastra env create <name>`);
  }

  if (environments.length === 1) {
    return environments[0]!;
  }

  if (opts.json || !isInteractive()) {
    const slugs = environments.map(e => e.slug).join(', ');
    throw new Error(
      `Project ${project.name} has multiple environments (${slugs}). Pass an environment name (e.g. ` +
        `\`mastra env db create <env> --kind ...\`) or use --shared to attach a project-scoped database.`,
    );
  }

  // Prefer production as the pre-selected option when it exists.
  const preferred = environments.find(e => e.type === 'production') ?? environments[0]!;

  const selected = await p.select({
    message: 'Which environment should this database be scoped to?',
    initialValue: preferred.id,
    options: environments.map(e => ({
      value: e.id,
      label: `${e.slug} (${e.type})`,
      hint: e.region ?? undefined,
    })),
  });

View on GitHub (pinned to 75dd419e61)

Solutions

Pass the target environment explicitly: `mastra env db create <env> --kind ...`.
Use `--shared` to create a project-scoped database when no environment binding is wanted.
Run the command interactively once to see a picker, then encode the chosen environment in your script.

Example fix

// before
mastra env db create --kind turso   # CI, multiple environments
// after
mastra env db create production --kind turso

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const envs = await listEnvironments();
if (envs.length > 1 && !explicitEnv && !shared) {
  throw new Error(`Multiple environments (${envs.map(e => e.slug).join(', ')}): pass one explicitly or use --shared.`);
}

Try / catch

try {
  await dbCreate();
} catch (e) {
  if (/has multiple environments/.test((e as Error).message)) {
    const slugs = (e as Error).message.match(/\(([^)]+)\)/)?.[1] ?? '';
    console.error(`Re-run with an explicit env, e.g. the first of: ${slugs}`);
  }
}

Prevention

Always pass an explicit environment in CI/non-interactive scripts.
Use --shared when the database should be project-scoped regardless of environments.
Parse the slug list from the error message to select a valid environment programmatically.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `mastra env db create --kind ...` (no env arg, no --shared) with --json set or in CI/non-TTY where isInteractive() is false, against a project with 2+ environments.

Common situations: CI pipelines and scripted deployments (non-interactive by nature), or --json output mode where prompting is impossible.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of mastra-ai/mastra@75dd419e61 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ba97539f48c3e0d9. Report an issue: GitHub.