santifer/career-ops · error

Missing required field

Error message

Missing required field: ${context}.${key}

What it means

_require in generate-cover-letter.mjs asserts that a payload object (e.g. candidate, job, company sections) contains every required key for HTML generation. If the object is missing/null/not-an-object or lacks a key, it throws naming the context (section) and key so the caller knows exactly which payload field to supply.

Solutions

1. Add the missing `${context}.${key}` field to your payload before calling the generator.
2. Log the whole payload object and compare against the template's _require(...) call list for that context.
3. Fix key typos by diffing your payload keys against the expected field names.
4. Add a pre-flight validation that checks all required keys for each section before invoking.

Example fix

// before
const payload = { candidate: {name: 'A'}, job: {title: 'Eng'} };
// after
const payload = { candidate: {name: 'A'}, job: {title: 'Eng', company: 'Acme'} };

function requireKeys(obj, keys, ctx) { for (const k of keys) if (!obj || typeof obj !== 'object' || !(k in obj)) throw new Error(`Missing ${ctx}.${k}`); }
requireKeys(payload.job, ['title','company'], 'job');

const hasKeys = (obj, keys) => !!obj && typeof obj === 'object' && keys.every(k => k in obj);

try { generateCoverLetter(payload); } catch (e) { const m = e.message.match(/Missing required field: ([\w.]+)/); if (m) { console.error(`Payload missing: ${m[1]}`); process.exit(2); } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the cover-letter generator with a payload missing a required field, e.g. { candidate: {...}, job: { title } } without job.company; passing null/undefined for a nested section; a typo in a key name (companyName vs company).

Common situations: Hand-written JSON payloads for the module API; a script building the payload conditionally and skipping an optional-looking field that is actually required; schema drift after a template update added a new required key.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• apify: entry missing 'actor' (e.g. misceres/indeed-scraper)
• jibeapply: careers_url required
• local-parser: parser.command is required
• 4dayweek: invalid URL
• 4dayweek: URL must use HTTPS

AI-assisted analysis of santifer/career-ops@aac998c7ed (2026-09-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/111392dbe5e60ab7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at generate-cover-letter.mjs:78

      ? posix.slice("output/".length)
      : posix;
  const candidate = resolve(OUTPUT_ROOT, relativeToRoot);
  if (containedInOutput(candidate)) return candidate;

  throw new Error(`Refusing to write the cover letter outside output/: ${raw}`);
}

/** True when absPath is a file (not output/ itself) still inside OUTPUT_ROOT. */
function containedInOutput(absPath) {
  const rel = relative(OUTPUT_ROOT, absPath);
  return rel !== "" && !rel.startsWith("..") && !isAbsolute(rel);
}

/** Assert that a payload object contains the required keys. */
function _require(obj, keys, context) {
  for (const key of keys) {
    if (!obj || typeof obj !== "object" || !(key in obj)) {
      throw new Error(`Missing required field: ${context}.${key}`);
    }
  }
}

/** Escape user-provided text before inserting it into generated HTML. */
function escapeHtml(text) {
  if (!text) return "";
  return String(text)
    .replace(/&/g, "&")
    .replace(/</g, "&lt;")
    .replace(/>/g, "&gt;")
    .replace(/"/g, "&quot;")
    .replace(/'/g, "&#39;");
}

/** Add an HTTPS scheme to a profile URL when it is omitted. */
function asUrl(value) {
  return /^https?:\/\//i.test(value) ? value : `https://${value}`;

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