composer/composer · error · RuntimeException

File "%s" cannot be found in the current directory

Error message

File "%s" cannot be found in the current directory

What it means

Thrown in BaseConfigCommand::initialize() when the resolved config file path does not exist on disk (and --global was not used, which would have created it). The sprintf fills in the resolved path so the user can see where Composer looked. This is a RuntimeException at initialization.

Source

Thrown at src/Composer/Command/BaseConfigCommand.php:79

            ($configFile === 'composer.json' || $configFile === './composer.json')
            && !file_exists($configFile)
            && realpath(Platform::getCwd()) === realpath($this->config->get('home'))
        ) {
            file_put_contents($configFile, "{\n}\n");
        }

        $this->configFile = new JsonFile($configFile, null, $io);
        $this->configSource = new JsonConfigSource($this->configFile);

        // Initialize the global file if it's not there, ignoring any warnings or notices
        if ($input->getOption('global') && !$this->configFile->exists()) {
            touch($this->configFile->getPath());
            $this->configFile->write(['config' => new \ArrayObject]);
            Silencer::call('chmod', $this->configFile->getPath(), 0600);
        }

        if (!$this->configFile->exists()) {
            throw new \RuntimeException(sprintf('File "%s" cannot be found in the current directory', $configFile));
        }
    }

    /**
     * Get the local composer.json, global config.json, or the file passed by the user
     */
    protected function getComposerConfigFile(InputInterface $input, Config $config): string
    {
        return $input->getOption('global')
            ? ($config->get('home') . '/config.json')
            : ($input->getOption('file') ?? Factory::getComposerFile())
        ;
    }

    /**
     * Get the local auth.json or global auth.json, or if the user passed in a file to use,
     * the corresponding auth.json
     */

View on GitHub (pinned to 6ffc117740)

Solutions

  1. Verify the file path exists (ls the directory) and correct the --file value or cd to the project root.
  2. Run `composer init` first to create a composer.json in the current project.
  3. If targeting global config, use --global so Composer creates it automatically.

Example fix

// before
composer config --file mispelled.json extra.foo bar
// after
composer config --file composer.json extra.foo bar
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$file = $input->getOption('file') ?? 'composer.json';
if (!file_exists($file)) {
    fwrite(STDERR, "Config file not found: $file — run `composer init` first\n");
    exit(1);
}

Type guard

function configTargetExists(string $f): bool { return is_file($f) && is_readable($f); }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running `composer config --file does-not-exist.json ...`, or running a config command in a directory that has no composer.json and no explicit --file, where the default composer.json is absent.

Common situations: Wrong working directory (no composer.json present); a typo in the --file path; the file was deleted or never created; running config before `composer init`; paths with spaces or missing on case-sensitive filesystems.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of composer/composer@6ffc117740 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9441d84355a561ce. Report an issue: GitHub.