'zone' property is missing from the ${j} index of the 'forms

Error message

'zone' property is missing from the ${j} index of the 'forms' property.

What it means

This is the getConfig variant of the zone check: each entry in the 'forms' array must contain a 'zone' property. When it is missing, the plugin cannot map the config to an injection point and skips the entry with this warning.

Source

Thrown at packages/admin/admin-vite-plugin/src/custom-fields/generate-custom-field-forms.ts:533

  }

  const configs: CustomFieldConfig[] = []

  formArray.elements.forEach((element, j) => {
    if (!isObjectExpression(element)) {
      logger.warn(
        `'forms' property at the ${j} index is malformed. The 'forms' property must be an object.`,
        { file }
      )
      return
    }

    const zoneProperty = element.properties.find(
      (p) => isObjectProperty(p) && isIdentifier(p.key, { name: "zone" })
    ) as ObjectProperty | undefined

    if (!zoneProperty) {
      logger.warn(
        `'zone' property is missing from the ${j} index of the 'forms' property.`,
        { file }
      )
      return
    }

    if (isTemplateLiteral(zoneProperty.value)) {
      logger.warn(
        `'zone' property at the ${j} index of the 'forms' property cannot be a template literal (e.g. \`general\`).`,
        { file }
      )
      return
    }

    if (!isStringLiteral(zoneProperty.value)) {
      logger.warn(
        `'zone' property at the ${j} index of the 'forms' property is not a string literal (e.g. 'general' or 'attributes').`,
        { file }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5e06e544a2)

Solutions

Add zone: 'general' (or another supported zone literal) to the entry at index j
Verify the key name is exactly 'zone'
Re-run the build to confirm the warning is gone

Example fix

// before
forms: [{ tab: 'general', fields: { ... } }]
// after
forms: [{ zone: 'general', tab: 'general', fields: { ... } }]

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

forms.forEach((f, i) => {
  if (typeof f.zone !== 'string') throw new Error(`forms[${i}].zone is required`)
})

Type guard

const hasZone = (f: unknown): f is { zone: string } =>
  typeof f === 'object' && f !== null && typeof (f as any).zone === 'string'

Prevention

Type your configs with a shared FormConfig interface requiring zone

When it happens

Trigger: A forms entry containing only fields: {...} or only tab: 'general', with no zone key.

Common situations: Minimal config examples copied from older docs, or refactoring that accidentally dropped the zone line.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of medusajs/medusa@5e06e544a2 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/17978b1c0365702e. Report an issue: GitHub.