angular ng serve command throws error: An unhandled exception occurred: Project does not exist

Question

I am trying to up my local angular dev env using ng serve, it was working perfectly fine a day back, but now every time I run ng serve or npm start it throws an error:

An unhandled exception occurred: Project does not exist.

I have tried running ng serve in one of my different project, it works there.

not sure what it causing this error

I have the exact same error and updating or reinstalling doesn't help for either angular/cli nor angular itself — itsLex, Aug 23 '19 at 14:07

adam0101 · Answer 1 · 2019-09-16T18:51:12.033

Make sure the name of the project in your angular.json matches what is being called from your package.json scripts section.

This is how I discovered the problem. I was getting the following error:

An unhandled exception occurred: Project does not exist.
See "C:\Users\Adam\AppData\Local\Temp\ng-XcQsPs\angular-errors.log" for further details.

When I went to that log file, I saw this:

[error] Error: Project does not exist.
    at WorkspaceNodeModulesArchitectHost.findProjectTarget (C:\Users\Adam\source\repos\TechScore.Express\node_modules\@angular-devkit\architect\node\node-modules-architect-host.js:94:23)
    at WorkspaceNodeModulesArchitectHost.getBuilderNameForTarget (C:\Users\Adam\source\repos\TechScore.Express\node_modules\@angular-devkit\architect\node\node-modules-architect-host.js:13:39)
    at RunCommand.runSingleTarget (C:\Users\Adam\source\repos\TechScore.Express\node_modules\@angular\cli\models\architect-command.js:175:55)
    at RunCommand.runArchitectTarget (C:\Users\Adam\source\repos\TechScore.Express\node_modules\@angular\cli\models\architect-command.js:218:35)
    at RunCommand.run (C:\Users\Adam\source\repos\TechScore.Express\node_modules\@angular\cli\commands\run-impl.js:14:25)
    at RunCommand.validateAndRun (C:\Users\Adam\source\repos\TechScore.Express\node_modules\@angular\cli\models\command.js:134:39)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:68:7)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:834:11)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:283:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:622:3)

So I opened node-modules-architect-host.js:94:23 and saw this:

const projectDefinition = this._workspace.projects.get(target.project);
if (!projectDefinition) {
    throw new Error('Project does not exist.');
}

I have no idea why they throw an error like this without telling you which project does not exist. So I changed the file to be like this:

throw new Error('Project does not exist. ' + target.project);

Now, when I build, I get an error like this instead:

An unhandled exception occurred: Project does not exist. client-app

Finally I can see who the culprit is! A global search for "client-app" showed me that it was being used from package.json, but my project in angular.json was "ClientApp". Changing all references of "ClientApp" to "client-app" fixed the problem for me.

There should have added this little piece `('Project does not exist. ' + target.project);` there which saves a lot of time. — kakurala, Jul 25 '20 at 09:05
When I update my node-modules-architect-host.js file as to your suggestions, I don't even get the new Error message? Any Idea how that could happen? — dfbenny, Feb 14 '21 at 15:30
@dfbenny, I would double-check that the correct file was modified, that the file was not overwritten by the old version after you modified it, and that a cached version was not being used (maybe clear package cache?). — adam0101, Feb 16 '21 at 16:11
Name of the project is now included in _angular-devkit-architect-builds_ since august 2020. — GChuf, Mar 29 '21 at 08:36
I tried this but the error changed to "Project target does not exist". — Mohamad Al Asmar, Mar 14 '22 at 22:44

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 07 '20 at 10:44

Similar to issue mentioned by adam0101, the issue got fixed for me by changing the project name. Infact package.json and angular.json names can be different( at least for me), but within angular.json, the naming was consistent

Old

  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "version": 1,
  "newProjectRoot": "projects",
  "projects": {
    "e-admin": {   ======NAME USED HERE=======
      "root": "",
...
"serve": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:dev-server",
          "options": {
            "browserTarget": "eAdmin:build"    ===NAME USED HERE====
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "browserTarget": "eAdmin:build:production"  <===NAME USED HERE
            }
          }
        },

Modified

 "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "version": 1,
  "newProjectRoot": "projects",
  "projects": {
    "e-admin": {
      "root": "",
...
"serve": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:dev-server",
          "options": {
            "browserTarget": "e-admin:build"
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "browserTarget": "e-admin:build:production"
            }
          }
        },

Agree, names can be different. In fact, you might have a command defined in `angular.json`, but even not existing in `package.json` and it'll still work. — Daniel Danielecki, Sep 11 '20 at 15:38

Paul Cheriyan · Answer 3 · 2020-08-24T07:25:18.433

9

please check projects name and defaultProject are same

testapp

{
"$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
"version": 1,
"newProjectRoot": "projects",
"projects": { // here 
    "testapp": {
        "root": "",
        "sourceRoot": "src",
        "projectType": "application",

.....................

"defaultProject": "testapp",

please try

npm install

or

yarn install

edited Aug 24 '20 at 07:25

answered Aug 24 '20 at 07:12

Paul Cheriyan

638
9
19

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 21 '19 at 11:09

7

Make sure you angular.json have this config

{
    "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
    "version": 1,
    "newProjectRoot": "projects",
    "projects": { // here 
        "testapp": {
            "root": "",
            "sourceRoot": "src",
            "projectType": "application",

answered Aug 21 '19 at 11:09

Tony Ngo

19,166
4
38
60

this application contain custom ng library I am building from, – Jatinder Aug 22 '19 at 07:11

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 29 '20 at 17:22

6

I match the values in angular.json & package.json and my problem was solved

angular.json:

"projects": {
    "step1": {
      "projectType": "application",
      ...,
      ...,

package.json

{
  "name": "step1",
  ...,
  ...,

answered Mar 29 '20 at 17:22

buguz

61
1
3

tried it but error still project "app" does not exist where I have change the name to something else than not "app" – Mohamad Al Asmar Mar 14 '22 at 22:50

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 25 '19 at 14:54

5

I fixed this issue changing the target in tsconfig.json from es2015 to es5

answered Dec 25 '19 at 14:54

Nicola Di Lillo

1,761
1
11
9

if you're getting reported issue suddenly without adding or removing any module..... this method will work thumbs up! – Ahsan Aziz Abbasi Jul 22 '20 at 06:26

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 08 '20 at 17:43

@adam0101 The solution helped a lot! Thank you!!!

But I had to add a console.log(target):

const projectDefinition = this._workspace.projects.get(target.project);
if (!projectDefinition) {
    console.log(target)
    throw new Error('Project does not exist.');
}

And I found in the package.json the wrong project name over a global search:

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 21 '20 at 22:26

2

Project name in angular.json must be the same at every property where is needed.

And take good care of letter case, even in paths, at angular.json.

Windows doesn't complain, but Angular does!!

answered Apr 21 '20 at 22:26

JoeCool

907
1
11
25

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 06 '21 at 08:54

I duplicated a project and changed its name getting me this error. Fixed it by changing the project name everywhere else in angular.json.

For example


    "e2e": {
              "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:protractor",
              "options": {
                "protractorConfig": "e2e/protractor.conf.js",
                "devServerTarget": "YourNewProjectName:serve"
              },
              "configurations": {
                "production": {
                  "devServerTarget": "YourNewProjectName:serve:production"
                }
              }
            },

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 18 '19 at 10:40

1

For anyone still having this issue. It's likely you didn't run npm install or yarn before calling the run script.

answered Nov 18 '19 at 10:40

roy-willemse

325
1
4
14

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 25 '20 at 07:03

1

I had the same problem with Angular Universal. For me it was the simplest thing. It is npm run dev:ssr not ng run dev:ssr. However, it is ng run myproject:serve-ssr. Watch for differences between ng and npm.

answered Apr 25 '20 at 07:03

Jonathan

3,893
5
46
77

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 18 '20 at 22:09

0

For me it only works using

npm run cordova:run android

answered Oct 18 '20 at 22:09

Everson Rafael

2,043
2
20
20

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Mar 21 '21 at 16:29

Make sure the path of "styles" in the angular.json should be

"./node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css"

instead of

"../node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css"

And also remove one dot from the "scripts"

 "scripts": [
              "./node_modules/bootstrap/dist/js/bootstrap.min.js"
            ]

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 27 '21 at 02:25

0

If you are working on an existing project, you might need want to check the codeCoverageExclude inside angular.json and see if your *.spec.ts files are defined inside the array.

You might find your files excluded on the test.

answered Jul 27 '21 at 02:25

ALBlancoIV

1
3

angular ng serve command throws error: An unhandled exception occurred: Project does not exist

14 Answers14

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