The admin is empty. Please provide an empty component, or…

Error message

The admin is empty. Please provide an empty component, or pass Resource or CustomRoutes as children.

What it means

CoreAdminRoutes computes the routes/resources from the <Admin>'s children; status 'empty' means no Resource or CustomRoutes children were found. If no `Ready`/`empty` component (e.g. <Ready> or the admin `empty` prop) is configured, react-admin throws because it has nothing to route to.

Solutions

Add at least one child: <Resource name="posts" list={PostList} />
Pass the `empty` prop (or Ready component) to <Admin empty={...}> to handle legitimately empty admins
If resources load asynchronously, render a loading state or ensure the resolve function returns before status becomes 'empty' without resources
Check that permission logic is not filtering out all resources unintentionally

Example fix

// before
<Admin dataProvider={dp} />
// after
<Admin dataProvider={dp}>
  <Resource name="posts" list={PostList} />
</Admin>

Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

Validate before calling

const hasChildren = (children) => React.Children.count(React.Children.toArray(children).filter(Boolean)) > 0;
if (!hasChildren(resources)) {
  return <Admin dataProvider={dp} empty={<NoResources />}>...</Admin>;
}

Prevention

Register at least one <Resource> as an <Admin> child
Set the `empty` prop on <Admin> to handle legitimately empty admins
Audit permission-based resource filtering so it cannot remove every resource
Provide loading states while dynamic resources resolve

When it happens

Trigger: Rendering <Admin dataProvider={...}> with zero children (no <Resource>, no <CustomRoutes>); all children provided asynchronously via a renderResources function that returns an empty array on first render while no `empty`/`Ready` component is set; children being conditionally removed by auth/permissions checks.

Common situations: Setting up an admin gradually (dataProvider first, resources later); permission-based menus where user has no access so all Resources are filtered out; dynamic resource registration that resolves empty; typo'd children (e.g. fragments resolving to nothing).

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of marmelab/react-admin@051f511bb0 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5335d8119e9ea049. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/ra-core/src/core/CoreAdminRoutes.tsx:47

        catchAll: CatchAll,
        dashboard,
        loading: LoadingPage,
        requireAuth,
        ready: Ready,
        authenticationError: AuthenticationError = Noop,
        accessDenied: AccessDenied = Noop,
    } = props;

    const { authenticated, isPending: isPendingAuthenticated } = useAuthState(
        undefined,
        // do not log the user out on failure to allow access to custom routes with no layout
        false,
        { enabled: requireAuth }
    );

    if (status === 'empty') {
        if (!Ready) {
            throw new Error(
                'The admin is empty. Please provide an empty component, or pass Resource or CustomRoutes as children.'
            );
        }
        return <Ready />;
    }

    // Note: custom routes with no layout are always rendered, regardless of the auth status

    if (status === 'loading' || (requireAuth && isPendingAuthenticated)) {
        return (
            <Routes>
                {customRoutesWithoutLayout}
                <Route
                    path="*"
                    element={
                        <div style={{ height: '100vh' }}>
                            <LoadingPage />
                        </div>

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