withastro/astro · error · AstroError

DataCollectionEntryParseError

DataCollectionEntryParseError

Error message

**${entryId}** failed to parse: ${errorMessage}

What it means

Astro's data collections support `.json` entries; the loader's `getEntryInfo` parses each file with `JSON.parse`. When parsing throws (the contents are not valid JSON), the error is caught and re-thrown as `DataCollectionEntryParseError` with the relative path and the parser's message. This gives content authors a content-directory-relative filename instead of a raw Node error.

Source

Thrown at packages/astro/src/core/config/settings.ts:58

		injectedRoutes: [],
		resolvedInjectedRoutes: [],
		pageExtensions: ['.astro', '.html', ...SUPPORTED_MARKDOWN_FILE_EXTENSIONS],
		contentEntryTypes: [markdownContentEntryType],
		dataEntryTypes: [
			{
				extensions: ['.json'],
				getEntryInfo({ contents, fileUrl }) {
					if (contents === undefined || contents === '') return { data: {} };

					const pathRelToContentDir = path.relative(
						fileURLToPath(contentDir),
						fileURLToPath(fileUrl),
					);
					let data;
					try {
						data = JSON.parse(contents);
					} catch (e) {
						throw new AstroError({
							...AstroErrorData.DataCollectionEntryParseError,
							message: AstroErrorData.DataCollectionEntryParseError.message(
								pathRelToContentDir,
								e instanceof Error ? e.message : 'contains invalid JSON.',
							),
							location: { file: fileUrl.pathname },
							stack: e instanceof Error ? e.stack : undefined,
						});
					}

					if (data == null || typeof data !== 'object') {
						throw new AstroError({
							...AstroErrorData.DataCollectionEntryParseError,
							message: AstroErrorData.DataCollectionEntryParseError.message(
								pathRelToContentDir,
								'data is not an object.',
							),
							location: { file: fileUrl.pathname },

View on GitHub (pinned to d081033d5f)

Solutions

1. Open the flagged entry (path in the message) and fix the JSON syntax error.
2. Validate the file with a JSON linter or `node -e "JSON.parse(require('fs').readFileSync('FILE','utf8'))"`.
3. Use only double-quoted strings and remove trailing commas/comments.

Example fix

// before — src/content/authors/jane.json
{ name: 'Jane', age: 30, }

// after
{ "name": "Jane", "age": 30 }

function validateJsonEntry(file) {
  JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(file, 'utf8'));
}

try { data = JSON.parse(raw); } catch (e) { /* report file + e.message */ }

When it happens

Trigger: A `.json` file inside a `src/content/` data collection directory contains a syntax error (trailing comma, unquoted key, single quotes, etc.). The exception in the `try { data = JSON.parse(contents) }` block at `settings.ts:58` triggers the throw.

Common situations: Hand-editing JSON and introducing a trailing comma or comment (JSONC not supported here); a script/CSV export producing non-standard JSON; encoding issues (BOM) causing parse failure; merging data and breaking syntax.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• BAD_REQUEST
• LiveContentConfigError
• A content collection is defined with legacy features (e.g. m
• Live content collections must be defined in "src/live.config
• Collection loader for ${name} does not have a load method

AI-assisted analysis of withastro/astro@d081033d5f (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5e3815daeca49691. Report an issue: GitHub.