TypeError: Cannot convert object to primitive value

[REQUIRED] Environment info

firebase-tools: 8.3.0 and later

Platform: Windows

[REQUIRED] Test case

firebase emulators:start

[REQUIRED] Steps to reproduce

npm i firebase-tools@8.3.0 -g firebase emulators:start

[REQUIRED] Expected behavior

D:\workspace\firebasetest>npm i firebase-tools@8.2.0 -g
npm WARN deprecated request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
D:\Users\yang\AppData\Roaming\npm\firebase -> D:\Users\yang\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\firebase-tools\lib\bin\firebase.js
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@~2.1.2 (node_modules\firebase-tools\node_modules\chokidar\node_modules\fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@2.1.3: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"win32","arch":"x64"})

+ firebase-tools@8.2.0
added 1 package from 1 contributor, removed 1 package and updated 1 package in 11.003s

D:\workspace\firebasetest>firebase emulators:start
i  emulators: Starting emulators: functions, firestore, pubsub
+  hub: emulator hub started at http://localhost:4400
!  Your requested "node" version "10" doesn't match your global version "12"
+  functions: functions emulator started at http://localhost:5001
i  firestore: firestore emulator logging to firestore-debug.log
+  firestore: firestore emulator started at http://localhost:8080
i  firestore: For testing set FIRESTORE_EMULATOR_HOST=localhost:8080
i  pubsub: pubsub emulator logging to pubsub-debug.log
+  pubsub: pubsub emulator started at http://localhost:8085
i  functions: Watching "D:\workspace\firebasetest\functions" for Cloud Functions...
>  [functions] Start functions
+  functions[updateRestaurantRate]: firestore function initialized.
+  functions[pubsubFn]: pubsub function initialized.
+  functions[cronRestaurantRanking]: pubsub function initialized.
+  functions[scheduledFunctionCrontab]: pubsub function initialized.
+  emulators: All emulators started, it is now safe to connect.

[REQUIRED] Actual behavior

D:\workspace\firebasetest>npm i firebase-tools@8.3.0 -g
npm WARN deprecated request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
D:\Users\yang\AppData\Roaming\npm\firebase -> D:\Users\yang\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\firebase-tools\lib\bin\firebase.js
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents@~2.1.2 (node_modules\firebase-tools\node_modules\chokidar\node_modules\fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents@2.1.3: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"win32","arch":"x64"})

+ firebase-tools@8.3.0
added 1 package from 1 contributor, removed 1 package and updated 1 package in 9.576s

D:\workspace\firebasetest>firebase emulators:start
i  emulators: Starting emulators: functions, firestore, pubsub
!  Your requested "node" version "10" doesn't match your global version "12"
i  firestore: Firestore Emulator logging to firestore-debug.log
!  hosting: The hosting emulator is configured but there is no hosting configuration. Have you run firebase init hosting?
i  pubsub: Pub/Sub Emulator logging to pubsub-debug.log
i  functions: Watching "D:\workspace\firebasetest\functions" for Cloud Functions...
!  TypeError: Cannot convert object to primitive value
    at Proxy.<anonymous> (D:\Users\yang\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\firebase-tools\lib\emulator\functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:311:83)
    at Object.<anonymous> (D:\workspace\firebasetest\functions\lib\index.js:13:7)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1158:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1178:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1002:32)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:901:14)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1044:19)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:77:18)
    at D:\Users\yang\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\firebase-tools\lib\emulator\functionsEmulatorRuntime.js:660:33
    at Generator.next (<anonymous>)
!  We were unable to load your functions code. (see above)
   - You may be able to run "npm run build" in your functions directory to resolve this.

I tired “npm run build” in my functions, it does not work.

D:\workspace\firebasetest>cd functions

D:\workspace\firebasetest\functions>npm run build

> functions@ build D:\workspace\firebasetest\functions
> tsc

[tomrozb]

Also present in 8.4.0. It was a regression in 8.3.0, and it’s not fixed yet 😦 The solution is to downgrade to 8.2.0

[natethegreat44]

For what it’s worth, I get the same error with both Node 10 and with Node 12, on both Windows and Mac.

Digging into what @rosariopfernandes described, I tracked my issue down to this line in my code:

admin.initializeApp(functions.config().firebase);

In my case, there was nothing in my firebase function config (I’m thinking I copied that line from an earlier firebase admin tutorial), so I changed the line to:

admin.initializeApp();

and it started working. Obviously not a great solution, especially if you do have actual configuration values you need to pass into initializeApp() but it lets me use 8.4.0 now, with the slick new emulator UI.

Hope that’s useful for someone.