DioxusLabs/dioxus · error · anyhow::Error

esbuild not found on PATH and downloads are disabled

Error message

esbuild not found on PATH and downloads are disabled

What it means

The CLI uses a pinned esbuild (ESBUILD_VERSION 0.27.3) for JS/TS asset processing and auto-downloads it on demand — unless download-free mode is enabled via CliSettings::prefer_no_downloads(). In that mode get_or_install only probes PATH with which::which; if no esbuild binary is found, it fails immediately with this message and never hits the network.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/esbuild.rs:22

//! previous SWC Rust library dependencies. The standalone Go binary is
//! downloaded from the npm registry and cached locally.

use crate::{CliSettings, Workspace};
use anyhow::{Context, anyhow};
use std::path::PathBuf;

/// Pinned esbuild version.
const ESBUILD_VERSION: &str = "0.27.3";

pub(crate) struct Esbuild;

impl Esbuild {
    /// Ensure the esbuild binary is available, downloading if needed.
    /// Returns the path to the binary.
    pub(crate) async fn get_or_install() -> anyhow::Result<PathBuf> {
        if CliSettings::prefer_no_downloads() {
            which::which("esbuild")
                .map_err(|_| anyhow!("esbuild not found on PATH and downloads are disabled"))
        } else {
            let path = Self::installed_bin_path();
            if !path.exists() {
                Self::install_from_npm().await?;
            }
            Ok(path)
        }
    }

    /// Return the esbuild binary path if it's already been installed or is on PATH.
    /// This is a sync check intended for use after `verify_tooling` has been called.
    pub(crate) fn path_if_installed() -> Option<PathBuf> {
        let path = Self::installed_bin_path();
        if path.exists() {
            Some(path)
        } else {
            which::which("esbuild").ok()
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 393d190a80)

Solutions

1. Install esbuild globally and make sure it is on PATH: npm install -g esbuild@0.27.3 (or brew install esbuild)
2. Re-enable downloads (unset the no-downloads CLI/DX setting) so dx fetches its pinned copy automatically
3. Pin the same version as the CLI (0.27.3) so behavior matches the bundled toolchain

# Pre-check the toolchain when downloads are disabled
command -v esbuild >/dev/null || npm install -g esbuild@0.27.3

When it happens

Trigger: Building (dx build/serve/bundle) with JS/TS assets on a machine where downloads are disabled (offline/air-gapped policy, DX no-download setting) and esbuild is not installed or not on PATH.

Common situations: Hermetic CI images that forbid network access; corporate proxies blocking registry.npmjs.org; local dev with the no-downloads preference toggled on but the toolchain never installed.

Related errors

• No esbuild binary available for this platform
• esbuild binary not found in archive (expected one of {}). Fo
• esbuild failed: {stderr}
• failed to expand ifunc table
• Syntax Error in line {line} column {column}: {err}

AI-assisted analysis of DioxusLabs/dioxus@393d190a80 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/74be5a1f1bfa15d3. Report an issue: GitHub.