tauri-apps/tauri · error

failed to read cwd

Error message

failed to read cwd

What it means

When the CLI runs as the Node package (TARGET=node), `tauri init` walks up from the current working directory to find node_modules/@tauri-apps/cli. std::env::current_dir() returns Err when the process's working directory no longer exists on disk (deleted or renamed), and this expect panics with 'failed to read cwd'.

Source

Thrown at crates/tauri-cli/src/init.rs:270

    );
    data.insert(
      "window_title",
      to_json(options.window_title.as_deref().unwrap_or("Tauri")),
    );
    data.insert("before_dev_command", to_json(options.before_dev_command));
    data.insert(
      "before_build_command",
      to_json(options.before_build_command),
    );

    let mut config = serde_json::from_str(
      &handlebars
        .render_template(TAURI_CONF_TEMPLATE, &data)
        .expect("Failed to render tauri.conf.json template"),
    )
    .unwrap();
    if option_env!("TARGET") == Some("node") {
      let mut dir = current_dir().expect("failed to read cwd");
      let mut count = 0;
      let mut cli_node_module_path = None;
      let cli_path = "node_modules/@tauri-apps/cli";

      // only go up three folders max
      while count <= 2 {
        let test_path = dir.join(cli_path);
        if test_path.exists() {
          let mut node_module_path = PathBuf::from("..");
          for _ in 0..count {
            node_module_path.push("..");
          }
          node_module_path.push(cli_path);
          node_module_path.push("config.schema.json");
          cli_node_module_path.replace(node_module_path);
          break;
        }
        count += 1;

View on GitHub (pinned to 52e4b6e71d)

Solutions

1. Re-enter an existing directory: run `cd .` (fails, confirming the issue) then `cd ~/` and `cd` back into the recreated project directory.
2. Restart the terminal session or reload the IDE window so it picks up a valid cwd.
3. Re-run the tauri command from the project root after the directory exists again.

Example fix

# before: shell cwd was deleted, `npx tauri init` panics
$ pwd && ls .
/home/me/app   (deleted)

# after: reattach to a real directory first
$ cd ~/ && cd /home/me/app   # recreated directory
$ npx tauri init

// Node: confirm cwd still exists before invoking the CLI
import fs from "node:fs";
if (!fs.existsSync(process.cwd())) {
  console.error("cwd was deleted; re-enter a valid directory");
  process.exit(1);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking the Node-based CLI (npx tauri ...) from a terminal or IDE whose cwd was deleted or recreated by another process while the session still pointed at the old inode.

Common situations: Running rm -rf on the project dir in one terminal then using a second terminal still cd'd there; VS Code integrated terminal after the folder was deleted/renamed; scripts that delete and recreate their own cwd.

Related errors

• Unable to write keypair
• Couldn't find capabilities directory at {}
• No file found in {} matching {}
• Failed to render template
• system clock is incorrect

AI-assisted analysis of tauri-apps/tauri@52e4b6e71d (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/76bde17dd86bb0b2. Report an issue: GitHub.