CherryHQ/cherry-studio · error · Error

manifest.json not found in ${packageLabel} file

Error message

manifest.json not found in ${packageLabel} file

What it means

Thrown after ZIP extraction when fs.existsSync(path.join(tempExtractDir, 'manifest.json')) is false. The package extracted successfully (no zip-slip, no extraction error) but no manifest.json entry was present at the archive root. The manifest is the contract every mcpb/dxt package must provide; without it the service cannot determine the server command, args, or version.

Source

Thrown at src/main/ai/mcp/McpPackageService.ts:530

        throw new Error(`${packageLabel} file not found`)
      }

      // Extract the package file (which is a ZIP archive) to a temporary directory
      logger.debug(`Extracting ${packageLabel} file: ${filePath}`)

      const zip = new StreamZip.async({ file: filePath })
      try {
        // Reject any zip-slip entry before writing anything to disk.
        assertZipEntriesWithin(Object.keys(await zip.entries()), tempExtractDir)
        await zip.extract(null, tempExtractDir)
      } finally {
        await zip.close()
      }

      // Read and validate the manifest.json
      const manifestPath = path.join(tempExtractDir, 'manifest.json')
      if (!fs.existsSync(manifestPath)) {
        throw new Error(`manifest.json not found in ${packageLabel} file`)
      }

      const manifestContent = fs.readFileSync(manifestPath, 'utf-8')
      const parsedManifest: ParsedMcpPackageManifest = JSON.parse(manifestContent)

      // Validate required fields in manifest
      let manifest: McpPackageManifest
      if (packageFormat === 'mcpb') {
        if (!parsedManifest.manifest_version) {
          throw new Error('Invalid manifest: missing manifest_version')
        }
        manifest = { ...parsedManifest, manifest_version: parsedManifest.manifest_version }
      } else {
        if (!parsedManifest.dxt_version) {
          throw new Error('Invalid manifest: missing dxt_version')
        }
        manifest = { ...parsedManifest, dxt_version: parsedManifest.dxt_version }
      }

View on GitHub (pinned to 726446b54c)

Solutions

1. Inspect the archive layout (unzip -l pkg.mcpb) and confirm manifest.json sits at the top level, not under a subdirectory.
2. Re-zip from inside the package directory so entries are relative to the directory root (cd pkg && zip -r ../out.mcpb .).
3. Ensure the file is named exactly manifest.json (case-sensitive) and is a JSON object, not a wrapper document.

Example fix

# before: zip created with parent dir
$ unzip -l out.mcpb
  pkg/manifest.json
  pkg/server.js
# after: zip from inside the dir
$ cd pkg && zip -r ../out.mcpb .
$ unzip -l ../out.mcpb
  manifest.json
  server.js

import * as StreamZip from 'node-stream-zip'
import * as fs from 'fs'
import * as path from 'path'

async function archiveHasRootManifest(zipPath: string): Promise<boolean> {
  const zip = new StreamZip.async({ file: zipPath })
  try {
    const entries = await zip.entries()
    return Object.keys(entries).includes('manifest.json')
  } finally {
    await zip.close()
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: The .mcpb/.dxt archive unzips to a top-level folder (e.g. everything under pkg/) rather than to the archive root, so manifest.json lands at tempExtractDir/pkg/manifest.json; or the manifest was named differently (manifest.jsonc, package.json); or the archive was assembled without including the manifest.

Common situations: The zip was created with `zip -r out.mcpb mydir/` which preserves the mydir/ prefix; a build script zipped the project root's parent instead of the project root; the author renamed manifest.json or used a different schema.

Related errors

• Invalid command: command must be a non-empty string
• Invalid command: command cannot be empty
• Invalid command: path traversal detected in "${command}"
• Invalid command: null byte detected
• Invalid args: must be an array

AI-assisted analysis of CherryHQ/cherry-studio@726446b54c (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d2077ce03360cbef. Report an issue: GitHub.