clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB · error · anyhow::Error

No matching target found in spacetime.json for the provided…

Error message

No matching target found in spacetime.json for the provided arguments. Use --no-config to ignore the config file.

What it means

publish loads spacetime.json from the current directory (or ancestors) and asks it for publish targets; if the loaded config yields zero targets, publish refuses to guess and suggests --no-config. Note the database-name mismatch case has its own error — this one fires when the config file exists but defines no usable targets at all.

Solutions

1. Inspect the printed 'Using configuration from <path>' line to find which spacetime.json was loaded
2. Fix that file so it defines at least one valid target with a `database` field (check table/section names against the docs)
3. Bypass config for this run: `spacetime publish --no-config <db>`
4. Delete or rename the stray spacetime.json if it was inherited from a parent directory

Example fix

# before: publishes from a dir whose parent spacetime.json has no targets
spacetime publish mydb
# after
spacetime publish mydb --no-config

# fail fast if the config that publish would load has no targets
CFG=$(findup spacetime.json 2>/dev/null || true)
[ -n "$CFG" ] && [ -z "$(jq -r '.targets // {} | to_entries[] | select(.value.database != null) | .key' "$CFG" 2>/dev/null)" ] && echo 'config has no targets: use --no-config or fix it'

match publish_exec().await {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("No matching target found in spacetime.json") => {
        // retry once with --no-config, or locate and repair the config file
    }
    rest => rest,
}

When it happens

Trigger: A spacetime.json present but missing/empty targets (e.g. only other sections, or target tables misnamed so collect_all_targets returns nothing); running publish in a subdirectory that unexpectedly inherits a parent's spacetime.json; config half-written by an interrupted init.

Common situations: Hand-authored spacetime.json with wrong table names; monorepos where a root spacetime.json is picked up from a nested package; stale config files from other tools named spacetime.json.

Related errors

• No database target matches
• database is a required field in publish config
• Aborted.
• Aborting because major version upgrade was not accepted.
• Cannot use generate-entry-specific arguments

AI-assisted analysis of clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB@eddf9f5014 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/147358534b75d0e5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/cli/src/subcommands/publish.rs:516

            && args.contains_id("module_path")
            && let Some(module_path) = args.get_one::<PathBuf>("module_path")
        {
            owned_loaded = find_and_load_with_env_from(env, module_path.clone())?;
        }

        owned_loaded.as_ref().inspect(|loaded| {
            if !quiet_config {
                for path in &loaded.loaded_files {
                    println!("Using configuration from {}", path.display());
                }
            }
        })
    };

    let (using_config, publish_configs) = if let Some(loaded) = loaded_config_ref {
        let filtered = get_filtered_publish_configs(&loaded.config, &cmd, &schema, args)?;
        if filtered.is_empty() {
            anyhow::bail!(
                "No matching target found in spacetime.json for the provided arguments. \
                 Use --no-config to ignore the config file."
            );
        }
        (true, filtered)
    } else {
        (
            false,
            vec![CommandConfig::new(&schema, std::collections::HashMap::new(), args)?],
        )
    };

    let clear_database = args
        .get_one::<ClearMode>("clear-database")
        .copied()
        .unwrap_or(ClearMode::Never);
    let yes = yes_flags_from_args(args);
    let environment_options = EnvironmentOptions::from_args(args)?;

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