apple/pkl · error

cannotFindResource

cannotFindResource

Error message

cannotFindResource

What it means

Thrown while reading one element of a globbed resource (`read(...).text` etc.) when the resource manager cannot find a file for the matched URI. The glob matched the path, but the actual resource disappeared or is unreadable, so the lookup returns empty.

Solutions

1. Confirm the file at the reported URI still exists and is inside the module path/allowed roots.
2. Re-run so the glob re-resolves against the current directory contents.
3. Check pkl.modulePath and security manager include/exclude rules for the resource location.
4. If resources are generated, ensure generation completes before evaluation.

// before evaluating, ensure matched files exist:
// ls <dir covered by glob>

try {
  processGlobbedResource(path)
} catch (e) {
  if (e.code === 'cannotFindResource') skipOrRegenerate(e.data.resourceUri)
  else throw e
}

When it happens

Trigger: Globbing resources (e.g. `read("*.txt")` in a `read` glob context) where a matched file is deleted, moved, or excluded by a module path/security rule between match and read, making ResourceManager.read return empty.

Common situations: Files removed after glob listing, module-path changes excluding matched files, caching of glob results while files change on disk, typos in resource paths matched only loosely.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• cannotFindResource
• cannotFindResource
• Cannot find Pkl module
• cannotFindCertFile
• cannotGlobTripleDots

AI-assisted analysis of apple/pkl@f3efcbfc9b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/87fe4cb05dc7800f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkl-core/src/main/java/org/pkl/core/ast/expression/unary/ReadGlobMemberBodyNode.java:50

  }

  @Override
  public Object executeGeneric(VirtualFrame frame) {
    var mapping = VmUtils.getOwner(frame);
    var path = (String) VmUtils.getMemberKey(frame);
    return readResource(mapping, path);
  }

  private Object readResource(VmObjectLike mapping, String path) {
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    var globElements = (Map<String, ResolvedGlobElement>) mapping.getExtraStorage();
    var globElement = VmUtils.getMapValue(globElements, path);
    assert globElement != null;
    var resourceUri = globElement.uri();
    var resource = VmContext.get(this).getResourceManager().read(resourceUri, this).orElse(null);
    if (resource == null) {
      CompilerDirectives.transferToInterpreter();
      throw exceptionBuilder().evalError("cannotFindResource", resourceUri).build();
    }
    return resource;
  }
}

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