sxyazi/yazi · error

Due to Cargo's limitations, Yazi on crates.io must be built…

Error message

Due to Cargo's limitations, Yazi on crates.io must be built with `cargo install --force yazi-build`

What it means

This panic fires in yazi-cli's build script when Cargo compiles the crate from a git checkout or from the crates.io registry source directory. Yazi's build scripts generate code that requires the `yazi-build` wrapper, which Cargo's plain `cargo install yazi-cli` flow cannot provide correctly. The panic exists to stop users from producing broken builds.

Solutions

1. Run `cargo install --force yazi-build` and then `cargo install --force --path <yazi-cli-dir> yazi-cli` from a cloned source tree instead of plain `cargo install yazi-cli`.
2. Prefer a prebuilt binary or package-manager distribution of Yazi over compiling from crates.io.
3. If building from source, clone the repo and build locally so the manifest path does not match the checkouts/registry patterns.

Example fix

// before
cargo install yazi-cli

// after
cargo install --force yazi-build
git clone https://github.com/sxyazi/yazi && cd yazi
cargo install --force --path yazi-cli

# shell check before install
manifest_dir=$(pwd)
case "$manifest_dir" in
  */git/checkouts/yazi-*|*/registry/src/index.crates.io-*) echo "must use yazi-build"; exit 1;;
esac

When it happens

Trigger: Running `cargo install yazi-cli` (which fetches from crates.io registry src) or depending on yazi from a git URL, causing CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR to contain `/git/checkouts/yazi-` or `/registry/src/index.crates.io-`.

Common situations: Users installing `ya` with plain `cargo install yazi-cli` after reading crates.io docs; projects adding yazi-cli as a git dependency; building from a vendored registry copy.

Related errors

• Due to Cargo's limitations, Yazi on crates.io must be built…
• exited with status
• failed to determine the Cargo bin directory
• Failed to get asset directory
• Failed to get cache directory

AI-assisted analysis of sxyazi/yazi@5f901b886b (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7579f296f3887eb6. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at yazi-cli/build.rs:14

#[path = "src/args.rs"]
mod args;

use std::{env, error::Error};

use clap::CommandFactory;
use clap_complete::{Shell, generate_to};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
	let manifest = env::var_os("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR").unwrap().to_string_lossy().replace(r"\", "/");
	if manifest.contains("/git/checkouts/yazi-")
		|| manifest.contains("/registry/src/index.crates.io-")
	{
		panic!(
			"Due to Cargo's limitations, Yazi on crates.io must be built with `cargo install --force yazi-build`"
		);
	}

	generate()
}

fn generate() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
	if env::var_os("YAZI_GEN_COMPLETIONS").is_none() {
		return Ok(());
	}

	let cmd = &mut args::Args::command();
	let bin = "ya";
	let out = "completions";

	std::fs::create_dir_all(out)?;
	for sh in [Shell::Bash, Shell::Fish, Shell::Zsh, Shell::Elvish, Shell::PowerShell] {

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