clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB · error

Module bindings path must be a relative path

Error message

Module bindings path must be a relative path

What it means

`spacetime dev` requires `--module-bindings-path` (and any bindings path from `spacetime.json`) to be relative because it is joined onto the resolved project directory (`project_dir.join(module_bindings_path)`). An absolute path is rejected so the CLI can keep all generated bindings under the project root and compute stable relative paths.

Source

Thrown at crates/cli/src/subcommands/dev.rs:176

    // If you don't specify a server, we default to your default server
    // If you don't have one of those, we default to "maincloud"
    let server_from_cli = args.get_one::<String>("server").map(|s| s.as_str());

    let default_server_name = config.default_server_name().map(|s| s.to_string());

    let mut resolved_server = server_from_cli
        .or(default_server_name.as_deref())
        .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("Server not specified and no default server configured."))?;

    let cwd = std::env::current_dir()?;
    let mut project_dir = if project_path.is_absolute() {
        project_path.clone()
    } else {
        cwd.join(project_path)
    };

    if module_bindings_path.is_absolute() {
        anyhow::bail!("Module bindings path must be a relative path");
    }
    let mut module_bindings_dir = project_dir.join(module_bindings_path);

    let mut spacetimedb_dir = match module_path_from_cli {
        Some(path) => {
            if path.is_absolute() {
                path.clone()
            } else {
                std::env::current_dir()?.join(path)
            }
        }
        None => project_dir.join("spacetimedb"),
    };

    let no_config = args.get_flag("no_config");
    let skip_publish = args.get_flag("skip_publish");
    let skip_generate = args.get_flag("skip_generate");
    let dotnet_version = args.get_one::<u8>("dotnet_version").map(u8::to_string);

View on GitHub (pinned to 524b4487d9)

Solutions

1. Change the path to be relative to the project root: `--module-bindings-path generated`
2. If the config file has an absolute bindings path, edit `spacetime.json` to a relative one
3. Move the desired output directory under the project directory if it currently lives outside it

Example fix

# before
spacetime dev --module-bindings-path /home/me/app/client/src/generated
# after
spacetime dev --module-bindings-path client/src/generated

# Reject absolute bindings paths before invoking dev
BP="client/src/generated"
case "$BP" in /*|?:\\*) echo "must be relative"; exit 1;; esac
spacetime dev --module-bindings-path "$BP"

When it happens

Trigger: Running `spacetime dev --module-bindings-path /home/me/project/generated`, or a `spacetime.json` whose bindings path is absolute (leading `/` on Unix or drive letter on Windows).

Common situations: Autocomplete shells inserting absolute paths; copying a config from a teammate or tutorial with a machine-specific absolute path; scripts that compute `$PWD/generated` before calling the CLI.

Related errors

• No such saved server configuration: {server} Add a new serve
• No default server configuration. Set an existing server as t
• Server nickname {} already in use: {}://{}
• Server host name is ambiguous with existing server nickname:
• Could not find a SpacetimeDB module in spacetimedb/ or the c

AI-assisted analysis of clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB@524b4487d9 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5963c8c9462f711b. Report an issue: GitHub.