The build command requires to be run in an Angular project, but a project definition could not be found

Question

I'm getting the following error after an npm audit fix --force (I know, I know).

The build command requires to be run in an Angular project, but a project definition could not be found.

I'm guessing that I need a project.json file however I can't find a template (or documentation) for that.

Extracts from my package.json:

  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/animations": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/common": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/compiler": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/core": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/forms": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/http": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "^5.0.3",
    "@angular/router": "^5.0.3",

  "devDependencies": {
    "@angular/cli": "^7.2.3",  <-- previously 1.5.4
    "@angular/compiler-cli": "^5.0.3",

(can post full file if needed)

Answer 1

Credit to @dmoore1181 and @Edric for pointing out that the missing file was indeed angular.json and that an upgrade was needed.

Following the advice in this question, I completed the upgrade but still didn't have an angular.json - what did this for me in the end (and also mentioned in the answer to that question) was the following command:

ng update @angular/cli --from=1.7.4 --migrate-only

Answer 2

Create a new project with ng new and that should create the file you need. Then you can copy it over to your project.