wasmerio/wasmer · error · anyhow::Error

No app name specified: use --name <app_name>

Error message

No app name specified: use --name <app_name>

What it means

During `wasmer app create`, get_app_name resolves the app name from --app-name or an interactive prompt. In non-interactive mode prompting is impossible, so it bails demanding an explicit name. The library throws it to avoid guessing a name in CI/automation.

Source

Thrown at lib/cli/src/commands/app/create.rs:188

            volumes: None,
            health_checks: None,
            debug: None,
            scaling: None,
            locality: None,
            redirect: None,
            extra: IndexMap::new(),
            jobs: None,
        }
    }

    async fn get_app_name(&self) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
        if let Some(name) = &self.app_name {
            return Ok(name.clone());
        }

        if self.non_interactive {
            // if not interactive we can't prompt the user to choose the owner of the app.
            anyhow::bail!("No app name specified: use --name <app_name>");
        }

        let default_name = match &self.app_dir_path {
            Some(path) => path
                .file_name()
                .and_then(|f| f.to_str())
                .map(|s| s.to_owned()),
            None => env::current_dir().ok().and_then(|dir| {
                dir.file_name()
                    .and_then(|f| f.to_str())
                    .map(|s| s.to_owned())
            }),
        };

        crate::utils::prompts::prompt_for_app_ident(
            "What should be the name of the app?",
            default_name.as_deref(),
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to 8c4b9ee9d3)

Solutions

1. Pass the name explicitly: add --app-name <app_name> (alias --name) to the command.
2. Remove --non-interactive to allow an interactive prompt.
3. In automation, derive the name from the directory and pass it explicitly.

Example fix

// before
// wasmer app create --non-interactive --owner me
// after
// wasmer app create --non-interactive --owner me --name my-app

if process.env.CI || !process.stdin.isTTY {
  if (!args.appName) throw new Error('app name required in non-interactive mode');
}

fn has_app_name(args: &CreateArgs) -> bool {
    args.app_name.as_deref().map(|s| !s.trim().is_empty()).unwrap_or(false)
}

match result {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("No app name specified") => {
        eprintln!("re-run with --name <app_name>");
        std::process::exit(2);
    }
    other => other?,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `wasmer app create` with --non-interactive (or in an environment where stdin is unavailable) without passing --app-name (or --name).

Common situations: CI pipelines, Docker builds, or scripts deploying apps non-interactively without the name flag.

Related errors

• No owner specified: use --owner <owner>
• No template selected
• Stopping as the directory is not empty
• The --use_local_manifest flag was passed, but path {} does n
• Template '{template}' not found in the registry

AI-assisted analysis of wasmerio/wasmer@8c4b9ee9d3 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/47df30a379219a8e. Report an issue: GitHub.