Update Teams Manifest - Object reference not set - microsoft-teams

Question

We are currently build a MS Teams app, and we are in the POC phase.
When using the menu in Visual studio to update the Manifest with the latest changes from the manifest, I get the following error. Project -> TeamsFx -> Update Teams Manifest
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at TeamsFx.VisualStudio.Definitions.AppDefinitionBot.FromAppManifestBot(AppManifestBot appManifestBot)
at TeamsFx.VisualStudio.Commands.TeamsAppManifest.<>c.<MergeIntoTeamsAppDefinitionAsync>b__18_2(AppManifestBot bot)
at System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereSelectListIterator`2.MoveNext()
at System.Collections.Generic.List`1..ctor(IEnumerable`1 collection)
at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToList[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source)
at TeamsFx.VisualStudio.Commands.TeamsAppManifest.<MergeIntoTeamsAppDefinitionAsync>d__18.MoveNext()
The bot is defined as follows :
"bots": [
{
"botId": "someId",
"needsChannelSelector": false,
"isNotificationOnly": false,
"scopes": [
"team",
"personal",
"groupchat"
]
}
],
And then we only have composeExtensions to show cards, with 2 simple examples to test and see how it works.
"composeExtensions": [
{
"botId": "someId",
"canUpdateConfiguration": true,
"commands": [
{
"id": "createCard",
"type": "action",
"context": [ "message" ],
"description": "Command to run action to create a Card from Compose Box",
"title": "Create Card",
"parameters": [
{
"name": "title",
"title": "Card title",
"description": "Title for the card",
"inputType": "text"
},
{
"name": "subTitle",
"title": "Subtitle",
"description": "Subtitle for the card",
"inputType": "text"
},
{
"name": "text",
"title": "Text",
"description": "Text for the card",
"inputType": "textarea"
}
]
},
{
"id": "createAdaptiveCard",
"type": "action",
"context": [ "message" ],
"description": "Command to run action to create a Card from Compose Box",
"title": "Adaptive Card",
"parameters": [
{
"name": "title",
"title": "Name",
"description": "Name of the User",
"inputType": "text"
},
{
"name": "subTitle",
"title": "Designation",
"description": "Designation of the User",
"inputType": "text"
},
{
"name": "text",
"title": "Description",
"description": "Description",
"inputType": "textarea"
}
]
}
]
}
],
The end result is the app in MS Teams when running it, doesn't pull in the latest changes.
The TeamFx Validation pass with no errors. My assumption is something is wrong in the manifest file, although I can't find anything that is standing out.
Can anyone please advise if they had this before and how to resolve it?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I found the solution was to include the following in the bots section of the manifest file:
"commandLists": []"
If that is isn't defined, it was throwing an exception. Defined, but with just an empty list, resolved it.