rust-lang/cargo · error · anyhow::Error

dependency ( ) specified without providing a local path…

Error message

dependency ({}) specified without providing a local path, Git repository, or version

What it means

Thrown during dependency resolution in query_dependency() when a workspace dependency (declared in [workspace.dependencies]) has no version, path, or git source specified, and querying it returns MaybeWorkspace::Workspace recursively — meaning the workspace definition itself is incomplete and has no concrete source to resolve.

Solutions

1. Add a version, path, or git source to the [workspace.dependencies] entry in the workspace root Cargo.toml
2. If the dependency should be a path dependency within the workspace, add `path = "../member"` to the workspace dependency entry
3. Remove the broken workspace dependency reference from the member crate if it is no longer needed

Example fix

# before (workspace root Cargo.toml)
[workspace.dependencies]
my-crate = {}
# error: dependency (my-crate) specified without providing a
# local path, Git repository, or version

# after
[workspace.dependencies]
my-crate = "1.0"

// Validate workspace dependency has a source before use
fn validate_workspace_dep(ws_toml: &toml::Value, key: &str) -> Result<(), String> {
    let dep = ws_toml["workspace"]["dependencies"]
        .get(key)
        .ok_or_else(|| format!("workspace dependency `{key}` not found"))?;
    let has_source = dep.get("version").is_some()
        || dep.get("path").is_some()
        || dep.get("git").is_some()
        || dep.get("workspace").is_some();
    if !has_source {
        return Err(format!("workspace dependency `{key}` has no version, path, or git source"));
    }
    Ok(())
}

When it happens

Trigger: A package depends on a workspace dependency (via `dep.workspace = true`) where the corresponding [workspace.dependencies] entry lacks version, path, git, or workspace source information. The double MaybeWorkspace::Workspace match at line 667 indicates the workspace entry points back to itself.

Common situations: Incomplete [workspace.dependencies] table where an entry was added as a placeholder without a source. Refactoring that removed the version/path from a workspace dependency but left references in member crates.

Related errors

• cannot override workspace dependency with
• cannot add ` ` as a dependency to itself
• cannot specify a git URL
• cannot specify a path
• unrecognized feature

AI-assisted analysis of rust-lang/cargo@98a09e7e7d (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/41fbaace61305e78. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/ops/cargo_add/mod.rs:671

    gctx: &GlobalContext,
    dependency: &mut Dependency,
) -> CargoResult<crate::workspace::Dependency> {
    let query = dependency.query(gctx)?;
    let query = match query {
        MaybeWorkspace::Workspace(_workspace) => {
            let dep = find_workspace_dep(
                dependency.toml_key(),
                ws,
                ws.root_manifest(),
                ws.unstable_features(),
            )?;
            if let Some(features) = dep.features.clone() {
                *dependency = dependency.clone().set_inherited_features(features);
            }
            let query = dep.query(gctx)?;
            match query {
                MaybeWorkspace::Workspace(_) => {
                    anyhow::bail!(
                        "dependency ({}) specified without \
                        providing a local path, Git repository, or version",
                        dependency.toml_key()
                    );
                }
                MaybeWorkspace::Other(query) => query,
            }
        }
        MaybeWorkspace::Other(query) => query,
    };
    Ok(query)
}

fn fuzzy_lookup(
    dependency: &mut Dependency,
    lookup: impl Fn(&str) -> CargoResult<Option<Dependency>>,
    gctx: &GlobalContext,
) -> CargoResult<Option<Dependency>> {

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