payloadcms/payload · error · Error

No package.json found in this project

Error message

No package.json found in this project

What it means

performPayloadPackageUpdate reads projectDir/package.json via fse.readJson (which would throw on missing file), then throws this when the parsed object has neither dependencies nor devDependencies. Note the message is misleading: the file exists; it just contains no dependency groups.

Source

Thrown at packages/create-payload-app/src/lib/update-payload-in-project.ts:136

  appDetails: NextAppDetails,
  versionOrTag?: string,
): Promise<UpdateResult> {
  return updatePayloadInNextProject({ appDetails, versionOrTag })
}

async function performPayloadPackageUpdate({
  projectDir,
  versionOrTag,
}: {
  projectDir: string
  versionOrTag?: string
}): Promise<PackageUpdateResult> {
  const packageObj = (await fse.readJson(path.resolve(projectDir, 'package.json'))) as {
    dependencies?: Record<string, string>
    devDependencies?: Record<string, string>
  }
  if (!packageObj.dependencies && !packageObj.devDependencies) {
    throw new Error('No package.json found in this project')
  }

  const dependencyGroups = [packageObj.dependencies, packageObj.devDependencies].filter(
    (dependencies): dependencies is Record<string, string> => Boolean(dependencies),
  )
  const payloadPackageEntries = dependencyGroups.flatMap((dependencies) =>
    Object.entries(dependencies).filter(
      ([packageName]) => packageName === 'payload' || packageName.startsWith('@payloadcms/'),
    ),
  )
  const payloadVersion = payloadPackageEntries.find(
    ([packageName]) => packageName === 'payload',
  )?.[1]
  if (!payloadVersion) {
    throw new Error('Payload is not installed in this project')
  }

  const packageManager = await getPackageManager({ projectDir })

View on GitHub (pinned to 00c58b35c0)

Solutions

  1. Confirm you are pointing at the real project root that contains a populated package.json.
  2. Ensure package.json has at least a dependencies or devDependencies object (even empty {}).
  3. If Payload is not yet installed, use the create/init flow rather than the update flow.
  4. Validate the file parses as valid JSON (fse.readJson would throw separately if malformed).

Example fix

// before — package.json
{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

// after
{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "dependencies": {},
  "devDependencies": {}
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import fse from 'fs-extra'
import path from 'path'

async function assertPackageJsonHasDeps(projectDir: string) {
  const pkg = await fse.readJson(path.resolve(projectDir, 'package.json'))
  if (!pkg.dependencies && !pkg.devDependencies) {
    throw new Error('package.json has no dependencies or devDependencies — wrong project root?')
  }
}

Type guard

function hasDeps(pkg: unknown): pkg is { dependencies?: Record<string, string>; devDependencies?: Record<string, string> } {
  return typeof pkg === 'object' && pkg !== null && ('dependencies' in pkg || 'devDependencies' in pkg)
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running the Payload update/init flow in a directory whose package.json has no dependencies and no devDependencies keys (e.g. a freshly npm init -y package, or a package.json containing only scripts/metadata).

Common situations: Targeting the wrong projectDir (not the project root); a monorepo child package with no deps; a hand-edited package.json that dropped the dependencies block; running update before any Payload install.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of payloadcms/payload@00c58b35c0 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/869afbf228bfe126. Report an issue: GitHub.