vercel/turborepo · warning

Generator "${generator}" not found

Error message

Generator "${generator}" not found

What it means

turbo-gen could not find any generator matching the name passed on the command line: findGenerator returned no match, so it warns and falls back to the interactive generator picker. Generators are discovered from the repository's workspaces, including any opted in via turbo.json's `generator.workspaces` configuration.

Source

Thrown at packages/turbo-gen/src/commands/run/prompts.ts:62

  }

  return undefined;
}

export async function customGenerators({
  generators,
  generator
}: {
  generators: Array<Generator | Separator>;
  generator?: string;
}): Promise<{ selectedGenerator: Generator }> {
  if (generator) {
    const match = findGenerator(generators, generator);
    if (match) {
      return { selectedGenerator: match };
    }

    logger.warn(`Generator "${generator}" not found`);
    logger.log();
  }

  const selectedGenerator = await select<Generator>({
    message: `Select generator to run`,
    choices: generators.map((gen) => {
      if (gen instanceof Separator) {
        return gen;
      }
      const qName = qualifiedName(gen);
      return {
        name: gen.description ? `  ${qName}: ${gen.description}` : `  ${qName}`,
        value: gen
      };
    })
  });

  return { selectedGenerator };

View on GitHub (pinned to f9245100cf)

Solutions

1. Run `turbo generate` without a name and inspect the picker to see the exact names available
2. Fix the typo or use the qualified name shown in the picker
3. Add the package containing the generator to `generator.workspaces` in turbo.json
4. Run from the repository root so discovery scans all workspaces

Example fix

# before
turbo generate util   # no generator named 'util'

# after: turbo.json
"generator": { "workspaces": ["tooling/generators/*"] }
# then
turbo generate util

// Ensure the requested generator exists before running non-interactively
const found = generators.some(
  g => !(g instanceof Separator) && (g.name === name || qualifiedName(g) === name)
);
if (!found) {
  console.error(`unknown generator '${name}'; available:`, generators.map(qualifiedName));
  process.exit(1);
}

function isGenerator(x: Generator | Separator): x is Generator {
  return !(x instanceof Separator);
}

When it happens

Trigger: `turbo generate foo` where no generator config has name 'foo' — a typo, a generator that lives in a package not covered by discovery/generator.workspaces, or running from a directory where nothing is found.

Common situations: Typos in generator names; forgetting to add the defining package to `generator.workspaces`; running turbo-gen from a subdirectory instead of the repo root.

Related errors

• Multiple generators named "${name}" found. Use a qualified n
• config_directory_already_exists
• lockfile should be in repo
• Some manual modifications may be required.
• non-root

AI-assisted analysis of vercel/turborepo@f9245100cf (2026-08-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7dc36a23b9ba11ee. Report an issue: GitHub.