clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB · error

Fatal Error: path {} does not exist.

Error message

Fatal Error: path {} does not exist.

What it means

The companion guard to 112 in run_build: module_path does not exist on disk at all. Unlike 111 (no path supplied and auto-discovery failed), here a path was supplied or resolved but nothing lives there — mistyped, relative to the wrong working directory, or the project moved/renamed.

Source

Thrown at crates/cli/src/subcommands/build.rs:89

pub fn run_build(
    module_path: PathBuf,
    lint_dir: Option<PathBuf>,
    build_debug: bool,
    features: Option<OsString>,
    native_aot: bool,
    dotnet_version: Option<u8>,
) -> Result<(PathBuf, &'static str), anyhow::Error> {
    // Create the project path, or make sure the target project path is empty.
    if module_path.exists() {
        if !module_path.is_dir() {
            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
                "Fatal Error: path {} exists but is not a directory.",
                module_path.display()
            ));
        }
    } else {
        return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
            "Fatal Error: path {} does not exist.",
            module_path.display()
        ));
    }

    let result = crate::tasks::build(
        &module_path,
        lint_dir.as_deref(),
        build_debug,
        features.as_ref(),
        native_aot,
        dotnet_version,
    )?;

    // For TypeScript modules, extract the schema from the bundle and emit
    // advisory warnings (e.g. HTTP handlers in mounted sub-modules are unsupported).
    // If the standalone binary is unavailable or extraction fails, skip silently.
    if result.1 == "Js"

View on GitHub (pinned to 524b4487d9)

Solutions

1. Verify the path: `ls <path>` — then correct the typo or use an absolute path
2. cd to the module directory and run `spacetime build` without --module-path to use discovery
3. Update scripts that hard-code paths after moving/renaming the project

Example fix

# before
spacetime build --module-path ./modual

# after
spacetime build --module-path ./module

# Verify the module path exists (and resolve it absolutely) before building
MODULE_PATH="$(realpath -e "$MODULE_PATH" 2>/dev/null)" || { echo "module path not found" >&2; exit 1; }
spacetime build --module-path "$MODULE_PATH"

fn ensure_exists(p: &Path) -> anyhow::Result<&Path> {
    if p.exists() { Ok(p) } else { anyhow::bail!("module path does not exist: {}", p.display()) }
}

match run_build(module_path, lint_dir, debug, features, aot, ver).await {
    Ok(v) => v,
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("does not exist") => {
        Err(e.context("check the path / working directory, then retry"))
    }
    Err(e) => Err(e),
}

When it happens

Trigger: `spacetime build --module-path <path>` where <path> doesn't exist: typo, wrong case, or a relative path interpreted from an unexpected cwd.

Common situations: Relative paths run from a different working directory than assumed (CI steps, cron, Makefile targets); project directory renamed after docs/scripts were written; mojibake or trailing whitespace in the path.

Related errors

• Fatal Error: path {} exists but is not a directory.
• Could not find a SpacetimeDB module in spacetimedb/ or the c
• Module bindings path {} exists but is not a directory.
• Module directory does not exist: '{}'. Check your --module-p
• Module bindings path must be a relative path

AI-assisted analysis of clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB@524b4487d9 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/16accc0362d17f0a. Report an issue: GitHub.