angular/angular-cli · error · Error

${message}

Error message

${message}

What it means

The workspace JSON reader registers an `error` callback with the JSON parser that unconditionally throws a plain `Error(message)`. Whenever the parser encounters invalid JSON or workspace content that violates the parser's expectations, this callback fires with a descriptive message. It is the generic parse-failure path for workspace (angular.json) parsing; diagnostic reporting is not yet wired up, so the raw parser message is surfaced as a thrown error.

Source

Thrown at packages/angular_devkit/core/src/workspace/json/reader.ts:80

  if (version !== 1) {
    throw new Error(`Invalid format version detected - Expected:[ 1 ] Found: [ ${version} ]`);
  }

  const context: ParserContext = {
    host,
    metadata: new JsonWorkspaceMetadata(path, ast, raw),
    trackChanges: true,
    unprefixedWorkspaceExtensions: new Set([
      ...ANGULAR_WORKSPACE_EXTENSIONS,
      ...(options.allowedWorkspaceExtensions ?? []),
    ]),
    unprefixedProjectExtensions: new Set([
      ...ANGULAR_PROJECT_EXTENSIONS,
      ...(options.allowedProjectExtensions ?? []),
    ]),
    error(message, _node) {
      // TODO: Diagnostic reporting support
      throw new Error(message);
    },
    warn(message, _node) {
      // TODO: Diagnostic reporting support
      // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
      console.warn(message);
    },
  };

  const workspace = parseWorkspace(ast, context);

  return workspace;
}

function parseWorkspace(workspaceNode: Node, context: ParserContext): WorkspaceDefinition {
  const jsonMetadata = context.metadata;
  let projects;
  let extensions: Record<string, JsonValue> | undefined;
  if (!context.trackChanges) {

View on GitHub (pinned to bb72145f9a)

Solutions

1. Validate angular.json with JSON.parse or a linter to find the syntax error at the location named in the message
2. Restore the workspace file from version control or regenerate it (e.g. `ng new` comparison)
3. If thrown on programmatically supplied content, fix the JSON string/AST before passing it to parseWorkspace

Example fix

// before
const workspace = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('angular.json', 'utf8').replace(/^\ufeff/, ''));
parseWorkspace(host, logger, workspaceText, options);
// after
let workspaceText = fs.readFileSync('angular.json', 'utf8');
try {
  JSON.parse(workspaceText); // validate first
} catch (e) {
  workspaceText = workspaceText.replace(/^\ufeff/, '');
  JSON.parse(workspaceText); // surface precise JSON syntax error
}
parseWorkspace(host, logger, workspaceText, options);

try { JSON.parse(workspaceText); } catch (e) { throw new Error(`angular.json is not valid JSON: ${e.message}`); }

let workspace;
try {
  workspace = await parseWorkspace(host, logger, text, options);
} catch (err) {
  // reader throws plain Error with the parser message
  console.error(`Failed to parse workspace: ${err.message}`);
  process.exitCode = 1;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling parseWorkspace/parseProject on content where the JSON parser's error callback fires: malformed JSON syntax, wrong node types where structures are expected, or other parser-level validation failures inside angular_devkit/core's JSON AST parser.

Common situations: Hand-edited angular.json with a syntax error (trailing comma, unquoted key); a tool wrote non-JSON content to the workspace file; encoding/BOM issues in the config file.

Related errors

• Workspace config file cannot be loaded: ${configPath}
• Failed to parse "${path}" as JSON AST Object. ${printParseEr
• Project "${projectName}" is missing a required property "roo
• Could not find ${level} workspace.
• Invalid config found at ${workspace.filePath}. CLI should be

AI-assisted analysis of angular/angular-cli@bb72145f9a (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e3405a2569ccb8f0. Report an issue: GitHub.