remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

Could not find a tsconfig.json file in your project. Did you

Error message

Could not find a tsconfig.json file in your project. Did you delete it? Create a tsconfig.json in the root of your project. Copy the default file from https://github.com/remotion-dev/template-helloworld/blob/main/tsconfig.json. The root directory is: ${remotionRoot}

What it means

Thrown by prepareConfigFile when bundling a TypeScript remotion.config.ts (isJavascript=false) and no tsconfig.json exists at the remotion root. esbuild needs a tsconfig to resolve TS in the config file, and Remotion's project template always ships one, so its absence is treated as a user error.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/load-config.ts:21

import {isMainThread} from 'node:worker_threads';
import {BundlerInternals} from '@remotion/bundler';

export type PreparedConfigFile = {
	code: string;
	remotionRoot: string;
	resolved: string;
};

export const prepareConfigFile = async (
	remotionRoot: string,
	configFileName: string,
	isJavascript: boolean,
): Promise<PreparedConfigFile> => {
	const resolved = path.resolve(remotionRoot, configFileName);

	const tsconfigJson = path.join(remotionRoot, 'tsconfig.json');
	if (!isJavascript && !fs.existsSync(tsconfigJson)) {
		throw new Error(
			`Could not find a tsconfig.json file in your project. Did you delete it? Create a tsconfig.json in the root of your project. Copy the default file from https://github.com/remotion-dev/template-helloworld/blob/main/tsconfig.json. The root directory is: ${remotionRoot}`,
		);
	}

	const virtualOutfile = 'bundle.js';
	const result = await BundlerInternals.esbuild.build({
		platform: 'node',
		target: 'node16',
		bundle: true,
		entryPoints: [resolved],
		tsconfig: isJavascript ? undefined : tsconfigJson,
		absWorkingDir: remotionRoot,
		outfile: virtualOutfile,
		write: false,
		packages: 'external',
	});
	if (result.errors.length > 0) {
		throw new Error(

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Create tsconfig.json in the remotion root. Copy the template from https://github.com/remotion-dev/template-helloworld/blob/main/tsconfig.json.
2. If you intentionally use plain JS, rename your config to remotion.config.js and ensure the loader is invoked with isJavascript=true (Remotion auto-detects by extension).
3. In a monorepo, ensure remotionRoot points at the directory that contains tsconfig.json, or extend a parent config.

Example fix

// before: remotion.config.ts present, no tsconfig.json
// after: add tsconfig.json in the same root
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ESNext",
    "module": "ESNext",
    "jsx": "react-jsx",
    "strict": true
  }
}

import {existsSync} from 'node:fs';
import path from 'node:path';

const ensureTsConfig = (remotionRoot: string, isJavascript: boolean) => {
  if (isJavascript) return;
  const tsconfig = path.join(remotionRoot, 'tsconfig.json');
  if (!existsSync(tsconfig)) {
    throw new Error(`Missing ${tsconfig}. Create it from the Remotion template.`);
  }
};

ensureTsConfig(remotionRoot, configFile.endsWith('.js'));

const hasTsConfig = (remotionRoot: string): boolean =>
  existsSync(path.join(remotionRoot, 'tsconfig.json'));

When it happens

Trigger: Loading remotion.config.ts (the default) in a project where tsconfig.json was deleted, renamed, or never created. Running in a JS-only project that nonetheless has a .ts config file.

Common situations: Accidentally deleting tsconfig.json; git clean removing untracked files; starting from a non-TypeScript template then adding remotion.config.ts; monorepo where tsconfig lives in a parent and remotionRoot is set to a subpackage.

Related errors

• Error in remotion.config.ts file: ${result.errors .map((
• setImageSequence accepts a Boolean Value
• outputLocation must be a string but got ${typeof newOutputLo
• Studio server port should be a number. Got ${typeof port} ($
• Caching flag must be a boolean.

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9b22502d95bc56e7. Report an issue: GitHub.