nanocoai/nanoclaw · error

--prompt is required

Error message

--prompt is required

What it means

prepareScheduledTask requires a non-empty prompt — the textual instruction the scheduled agent will run is mandatory. Without it a task would have nothing to execute, so creation is rejected immediately with '--prompt is required'. This mirrors the CLI flag name of the same option.

Source

Thrown at src/modules/scheduling/create.ts:112

  if (fires > MAX_DAILY_FIRES) throw new Error(RECURRENCE_LIMIT_WARNING);
}

/**
 * Validate task semantics and derive its first run without writing anything.
 * `timezone` grounds wall-clock interpretation (cron grid, naive
 * --process-after) — pass the owning group's effective timezone
 * (`resolveGroupTimezone`); it defaults to the install-global one.
 */
export function prepareScheduledTask(input: {
  name?: string;
  prompt: string;
  recurrence?: string | null;
  processAfter?: string;
  script?: string | null;
  dangerouslyOverrideRecurrenceLimit?: boolean;
  timezone?: string;
}): PreparedScheduledTask {
  if (!input.prompt) throw new Error('--prompt is required');
  const recurrence = input.recurrence ?? null;
  const script = input.script ?? null;
  const tz = input.timezone ?? TIMEZONE;
  validateRecurrence(recurrence, tz);
  enforceRecurrenceLimit(recurrence, input.dangerouslyOverrideRecurrenceLimit === true, script !== null, tz);

  let processAfter: string;
  if (input.processAfter === undefined && recurrence) {
    const next = CronExpressionParser.parse(recurrence, { tz }).next().toISOString();
    if (!next) throw new Error(`--recurrence has no upcoming run: ${recurrence}`);
    processAfter = next;
  } else {
    processAfter = parseProcessAfter(input.processAfter, tz);
  }

  return { name: input.name, prompt: input.prompt, recurrence, script, processAfter };
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 294ef2aee8)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-empty prompt: prepareScheduledTask({ prompt: 'Summarize inbox', ... }).
2. If generating tasks from templates/config, validate each entry has a prompt before calling prepareScheduledTask.
3. Check for typos in the option key ('prompts', 'text', 'message' instead of 'prompt').
4. Default it deliberately, e.g. prompt: input.prompt ?? fallbackText, only if a sensible default exists.

Example fix

// before
await prepareScheduledTask({ recurrence: '0 9 * * *' });

// after
await prepareScheduledTask({ prompt: 'Summarize the inbox', recurrence: '0 9 * * *' });

if (!input?.prompt || !input.prompt.trim()) throw new Error('task prompt missing — refusing to call prepareScheduledTask');

const hasPrompt = (t: { prompt?: string | null }): t is { prompt: string } => typeof t.prompt === 'string' && t.prompt.trim().length > 0;

When it happens

Trigger: Calling prepareScheduledTask (directly or via a template task list / ncl tasks create) with prompt omitted, empty string, or undefined; building tasks programmatically from a config object where the prompt key is misspelled or conditionally unset.

Common situations: A template generates multiple tasks and one entry lacks a prompt field; a script constructs the task object dynamically and the prompt variable is undefined; users assuming recurrence alone is enough to define a task.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• invalid --recurrence: ${msg}
• --recurrence has no upcoming run: ${recurrence}
• ${flag} is required
• --status must be pending or paused
• session not found: ${sessionId}

AI-assisted analysis of nanocoai/nanoclaw@294ef2aee8 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bd1c2313e68c498c. Report an issue: GitHub.