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

Briefing

are you executing ng serve from the correct directory? – Crosswalk

update or reinstall angular cli – Holbrook

I have the exact same error and updating or reinstalling doesn't help for either angular/cli nor angular itself – Judsonjudus

Answer 1

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.

Infect

There should have added this little piece ('Project does not exist. ' + target.project); there which saves a lot of time. – Rhine

This is a great solution and explanation! Thanks – Riffraff

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? – Oberg

@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?). – Infect

Name of the project is now included in angular-devkit-architect-builds since august 2020. – Misti

I tried this but the error changed to "Project target does not exist". – Cockspur

Answer 2

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"
            }
          }
        },

Amylose

Thank you, your answer helps me not to waste my time, – Fulgurating

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. – Ddt

Answer 3

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

Polacre

Answer 4

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",

Dube

this application contain custom ng library I am building from, – Briefing

Answer 5

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

angular.json:

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

package.json

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

Reconcile

tried it but error still project "app" does not exist where I have change the name to something else than not "app" – Cockspur

Answer 6

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

Spence

if you're getting reported issue suddenly without adding or removing any module..... this method will work thumbs up! – Steinbach

Answer 7

@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:

Grotto

Answer 8

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!!

Carothers

Answer 9

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.

Heller

Answer 10

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"
                }
              }
            },

Margo

Answer 11

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

Rainbolt

Answer 12

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.

Dicker

Answer 13

For me it only works using

npm run cordova:run android

Inexpressible

Answer 14

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"
            ]

Geordie