No docker-sync.yml configuration found in your path ( traver

Error message

No docker-sync.yml configuration found in your path ( traversing up ) Did you define it for your project?

What it means

docker-sync locates its project configuration by searching for a file named exactly docker-sync.yml in the current working directory and then in every parent directory up to the filesystem root (the only glob checked is <path>/docker-sync.yml, see globs_for_project_config in lib/docker-sync/config/config_locator.rb). lookup_project_config_path raises this error when that upward traversal finds no match. It is reached from ProjectConfig#initialize (project_config.rb:31) whenever no config_path or config_string argument is given, so it fires before any other validation for every docker-sync command run in a config-less directory tree.

Source

Thrown at lib/docker-sync/config/config_locator.rb:23

  module ConfigLocator
    ERROR_MISSING_PROJECT_CONFIG =
      'No docker-sync.yml configuration found in your path ( traversing up ) '\
      'Did you define it for your project?'.freeze

    class << self
      attr_accessor :global_config_path
      # @return [String] The path to the global config location
      def current_global_config_path
        path = global_config_path
        path = File.expand_path('~/.docker-sync-global.yml') if path.nil?
        path
      end

      # @return [String] the path to the project configuration found
      def lookup_project_config_path
        files = project_config_find

        raise ERROR_MISSING_PROJECT_CONFIG if files.empty?

        files.pop
      end

      private


      # this has been ruthlessly stolen from Thor/runner.rb - please do not hunt me for that :)
      # returns a list of file paths matching the docker-sync.yml file. The return the first one we find while traversing
      # the folder tree up
      # @return [Array]
      def project_config_find(skip_lookup = false)
        # Finds docker-sync.yml by traversing from your current directory down to the root
        # directory of your system. If at any time we find a docker-sync.yml file, we stop.
        #
        #
        # ==== Example
        #

View on GitHub (pinned to 4eab6de164)

Solutions

Create docker-sync.yml in your project root with a version: "2" header and a syncs: block.
If the file exists under a different name (for example docker-sync.yaml), rename it to exactly docker-sync.yml.
Run the command from the project root or from any directory below the folder that holds docker-sync.yml; the lookup only ascends from the current directory.
In code, bypass the lookup by passing config_path: 'config/docker-sync.yml' or config_string: to ProjectConfig.new.

Example fix

# before (run from ~/work, no docker-sync.yml anywhere above it)
cfg = DockerSync::ProjectConfig.new
# => RuntimeError: No docker-sync.yml configuration found in your path...

# after (docker-sync.yml exists at the project root):
#   version: "2"
#   syncs:
#     appcode-sync:
#       src: './src'
cfg = DockerSync::ProjectConfig.new

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

require 'pathname'

found = Pathname.pwd.ascend.any? { |dir| File.exist?(dir.join('docker-sync.yml')) }
abort 'no docker-sync.yml in this directory tree' unless found
config = DockerSync::ProjectConfig.new

Try / catch

begin
  config = DockerSync::ProjectConfig.new
rescue RuntimeError => e
  raise unless e.message.start_with?('No docker-sync.yml configuration found')
  warn 'docker-sync: create docker-sync.yml at the project root or pass config_path:'
  exit 1
end

Prevention

Keep docker-sync.yml at the repository root and commit it; do not gitignore it.
Run docker-sync commands from the project root or a subdirectory of it.
Use the exact filename docker-sync.yml; .yaml variants are not matched.
In scripts, pass config_path: explicitly instead of relying on the upward lookup.

When it happens

Trigger: Running any docker-sync command, or calling DockerSync::ProjectConfig.new with config_path nil/empty, from a working directory where neither it nor any ancestor contains docker-sync.yml. Only the exact filename matches: docker-sync.yaml, docker_sync.yml, or docker-sync.yml.dist are all invisible to the lookup.

Common situations: Fresh project where docker-sync.yml was never created; running the CLI from outside the project tree; the file being untracked or gitignored so a fresh clone lacks it; a misspelled filename such as docker-sync.yaml.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of EugenMayer/docker-sync@4eab6de164 (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c5e0ae2020d232b. Report an issue: GitHub.