bevyengine/bevy · error · ParseError

a ']' was found before an opening '['

Error message

a ']' was found before an opening '['

What it means

Parse variant of the reflect path parser signaling an unbalanced ']': a closing bracket token was encountered while no '[' was currently open. This is a structural error in the path string (e.g. 'foo]' instead of 'foo[0]'), not a bad token value; rewrite the path so every ']' is preceded by a matching '['.

Source

Thrown at crates/bevy_reflect/src/path/parse.rs:33

/// A parse error for a path string.
#[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Eq, Error)]
enum Error<'a> {
    #[error("expected an identifier, but reached end of path string")]
    NoIdent,

    #[error("expected an identifier, got '{0}' instead")]
    ExpectedIdent(Token<'a>),

    #[error("failed to parse index as integer")]
    InvalidIndex(#[from] ParseIntError),

    #[error("a '[' wasn't closed, reached end of path string before finding a ']'")]
    Unclosed,

    #[error("a '[' wasn't closed properly, got '{0}' instead")]
    BadClose(Token<'a>),

    #[error("a ']' was found before an opening '['")]
    CloseBeforeOpen,
}

pub(super) struct PathParser<'a> {
    path: &'a str,
    remaining: &'a [u8],
}

impl<'a> PathParser<'a> {
    pub(super) fn new(path: &'a str) -> Self {
        let remaining = path.as_bytes();
        PathParser { path, remaining }
    }

    fn next_token(&mut self) -> Option<Token<'a>> {
        let to_parse = self.remaining;

        // Return with `None` if empty.

View on GitHub (pinned to 396ca72708)

Solutions

1. Remove the stray ']'
2. Add the missing opening '[' before it

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/bevy_reflect/src/path/parse.rs:33 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of bevyengine/bevy@396ca72708 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1eca97d4330e9b67. Report an issue: GitHub.