facebook/relay · error

Invalid glob pattern '{}': {}

Error message

Invalid glob pattern '{}': {}

What it means

load_schema expands each entry of schema_paths as a glob pattern via the glob crate. If a pattern is malformed (e.g. unbalanced brackets, invalid recursion syntax), glob::glob returns an error which is wrapped as 'Invalid glob pattern'. The whole load fails before any file is read.

Source

Thrown at compiler/crates/graphql-ir-diff/src/lib.rs:804

            // allows parsing of "query {...}" with no name, all other options are default
            default_anonymous_operation_name: Some("Anonymous".intern()),
            allow_custom_scalar_literals: true,
        },
    )
    .map_err(|diagnostics| anyhow::anyhow!(diagnostics.iter().join("\n")))?;

    Ok(Program::from_definitions(schema, ir))
}

pub fn load_schema(schema_paths: Vec<String>) -> Result<Arc<SDLSchema>> {
    // Collect (content, file_path) pairs for each schema file
    let schema_files: Vec<(String, String)> = schema_paths
        .clone()
        .into_iter()
        .map(|pattern| {
            // expand if path contains "*"
            let paths = glob::glob(&pattern)
                .map_err(|e| anyhow!("Invalid glob pattern '{}': {}", pattern, e))?;
            let file_entries: Result<Vec<(String, String)>> = paths
                .map(|entry| {
                    let file_path =
                        entry.map_err(|e| anyhow!("Failed to read glob entry: {}", e))?;
                    let file_path_str = file_path.to_string_lossy().to_string();
                    let schema_bytes = fs::read(file_path)?;
                    let content = String::from_utf8(schema_bytes)
                        .map_err(|e| anyhow!("Cannot parse schema utf8 from bytes: {}", e))?;
                    Ok((content, file_path_str))
                })
                .collect();
            file_entries
        })
        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?
        .into_iter()
        .flatten()
        .collect();

View on GitHub (pinned to 668b1b85e0)

Solutions

1. Inspect the pattern echoed in the error and fix its glob syntax (balance brackets, valid wildcards *, ?, **).
2. Test the pattern in isolation (glob::glob(&pattern).unwrap()) before wiring it into config.
3. If the path is meant to be literal, escape glob metacharacters or ensure it contains no [ ] { } characters.
4. Validate patterns at config-load time with a small helper that calls glob::glob and reports a friendly error.

Example fix

// before
load_schema(vec!["schemas/**[".to_string()])?; // invalid pattern
// after
load_schema(vec!["schemas/**/*.graphql".to_string()])?;

fn valid_glob(pattern: &str) -> bool {
    glob::glob(pattern).is_ok()
}
// assert all patterns compile before calling load_schema
for p in &schema_paths {
    assert!(valid_glob(p), "invalid glob pattern: {p}");
}

let schema = load_schema(paths.clone()).map_err(|e| {
    if e.to_string().starts_with("Invalid glob pattern") {
        anyhow!("config error: check schema_paths globs: {e}")
    } else { e }
});

When it happens

Trigger: Calling load_schema(vec![pattern]) or compare() with a pattern string the glob crate cannot compile — e.g. "schema/**[" or "[a-" ; empty or mis-escaped patterns.

Common situations: Config files or CLI args where patterns are hand-typed with typos; patterns interpolated from variables that contain stray '[' or ']'; Windows-style backslash paths mixed into glob syntax.

Related errors

• No schema loaded for paths: {}
• BabelPluginRelay: Expected plugin context to include "types"
• Babel state is missing expected file name
• RelayObservable: Expected pollInterval to be positive, got:
• Relay Environment Configuration Error (dev only): `@required

AI-assisted analysis of facebook/relay@668b1b85e0 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c2788e16b575b154. Report an issue: GitHub.