tauri-apps/tauri · error

failed to read plugin global API script paths

Error message

failed to read plugin global API script paths

What it means

read_global_api_scripts reads back <out_dir>/__global-api-script.js written during the build. The exists() check already passed, so the expect fires only on an IO-level read failure: the file was deleted between check and read, permission was lost, or the content is not valid UTF-8 (e.g. truncated by an interrupted build).

Source

Thrown at crates/tauri-utils/src/plugin.rs:70

      scripts.insert(0, tauri_global_scripts);
    }

    fs::write(
      out_dir.join(GLOBAL_API_SCRIPT_FILE_LIST_PATH),
      serde_json::to_string(&scripts).expect("failed to serialize global API script paths"),
    )
    .expect("failed to write global API script");
  }

  /// Read global api scripts from [`GLOBAL_API_SCRIPT_FILE_LIST_PATH`]
  pub fn read_global_api_scripts(out_dir: &Path) -> Option<Vec<String>> {
    let global_scripts_path = out_dir.join(GLOBAL_API_SCRIPT_FILE_LIST_PATH);
    if !global_scripts_path.exists() {
      return None;
    }

    let global_scripts_str = fs::read_to_string(global_scripts_path)
      .expect("failed to read plugin global API script paths");
    let global_scripts = serde_json::from_str::<Vec<PathBuf>>(&global_scripts_str)
      .expect("failed to parse plugin global API script paths");

    Some(
      global_scripts
        .into_iter()
        .map(|p| {
          fs::read_to_string(&p).unwrap_or_else(|e| {
            panic!(
              "failed to read plugin global API script {}: {e}",
              p.display()
            )
          })
        })
        .collect(),
    )
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 52e4b6e71d)

Solutions

1. Clean the artifacts: cargo clean (or delete the crate's OUT_DIR under target/) so the file is regenerated.
2. Avoid running concurrent builds against the same target directory.
3. If it persists, inspect the file: it must be a valid UTF-8 JSON array of paths.

let p = out_dir.join(tauri_utils::plugin::GLOBAL_API_SCRIPT_FILE_LIST_PATH);
if let Ok(raw) = std::fs::read(&p) {
    if std::str::from_utf8(&raw).is_err() {
        std::fs::remove_file(&p).ok(); // force regeneration next build
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: A stale or half-written __global-api-script.js left in OUT_DIR by an interrupted or killed build; concurrent builds sharing one OUT_DIR; corrupted artifacts.

Common situations: Killing cargo mid-build and rebuilding into the same target dir; CI caching target/ with corrupted files; encoding corruption of the artifact.

Related errors

• failed to write global API script
• failed to write checked_features file
• failed to canonicalize global API script path
• Failed to write kotlin file
• failed to write proguard-tauri.pro

AI-assisted analysis of tauri-apps/tauri@52e4b6e71d (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b70d7c5eb057b97f. Report an issue: GitHub.