nexu-io/open-design · warning · Error

project arg omitted and Open Design has no active project. T

Error message

project arg omitted and Open Design has no active project. The active context expires about 5 minutes after the last user interaction with Open Design - the user may need to click into a project to wake it up. Otherwise pass project="<id-or-name>".

What it means

Thrown by resolveProjectArg when GET /api/active succeeded but returned `active === false` or no `projectId`. The active context is a short-lived pointer to the project the user last interacted with in the Open Design UI, and it expires about 5 minutes after the last interaction. The MCP layer cannot guess which project to target without it.

Source

Thrown at apps/daemon/src/mcp.ts:2951

async function resolveProjectArg(
  baseUrl: string,
  arg: unknown,
  headers?: Record<string, string>,
): Promise<{ id: string; resolved: ResolvedProject | null; active: ActiveContext | null }> {
  if (typeof arg === 'string' && arg.length > 0) {
    const resolved = await resolveProjectId(baseUrl, arg, headers);
    return { id: resolved.id, resolved, active: null };
  }
  let active: ActiveContext;
  try {
    active = await getJson<ActiveContext>(`${baseUrl}/api/active`);
  } catch (err) {
    throw new Error(
      `project arg omitted and active context lookup failed: ${errorMessage(err)}. Pass project="<id-or-name>".`,
    );
  }
  if (!active || active.active === false || !active.projectId) {
    throw new Error(
      'project arg omitted and Open Design has no active project. The active context expires about 5 minutes after the last user interaction with Open Design - the user may need to click into a project to wake it up. Otherwise pass project="<id-or-name>".',
    );
  }
  return { id: active.projectId, resolved: null, active };
}

async function resolveProjectId(
  baseUrl: string,
  arg: unknown,
  headers?: Record<string, string>,
): Promise<ResolvedProject> {
  if (typeof arg !== 'string' || !arg) {
    throw new Error('project is required (string).');
  }
  if (UUID_RE.test(arg)) return { id: arg, name: arg, source: 'uuid' as const };

  const list = await fetchProjectList(baseUrl, headers);
  if (list.length === 0) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 5be4028344)

Solutions

Pass `project: "<id-or-name>"` explicitly so the call does not depend on UI activity.
Have the user click into a project in the Open Design UI to refresh the active pointer, then retry.
For automation/CI, always supply project explicitly and never rely on the active context.
List projects first via the project MCP tool to discover the id, then pass it.

Example fix

// before
runStart({ prompt })  // relies on active context, expired
// after
runStart({ prompt, project: "my-deck" })

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

async function ensureActive(baseUrl: string): Promise<string> {
  const a = await getJson(`${baseUrl}/api/active`);
  if (!a || a.active === false || !a.projectId) throw new Error('no active project; pass project explicitly');
  return a.projectId;
}

Try / catch

try {
  await runStart({ prompt });
} catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes('no active project')) {
    await runStart({ prompt, project: await pickProject() });
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Never rely on the active context for unattended runs.
Pass project explicitly whenever the user may be away.
Refresh the active pointer by interacting with the UI before short interactive sessions.

When it happens

Trigger: User closed or backgrounded Open Design for >5 min then invoked an MCP tool without `project`; fresh daemon where the user never opened a project; UI session expired; user switched projects but the active pointer lagged.

Common situations: Long-running agent tasks that outlive the active window; CI/headless runs with no UI user present; the user clicked away from the Open Design window.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nexu-io/open-design@5be4028344 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d938f591bb155866. Report an issue: GitHub.