What causes "runtime.json: no platforms defined" in xtekky/gpt4free?

Inspect runtime.json and confirm it has a populated lowercase 'platforms' object with per-OS/arch entries

runtime.json: no platforms defined

Error message

runtime.json: no platforms defined

What it means

parseRuntimeManifest in g4f-go/download.go json.Unmarshals runtime.json and requires the Platforms map to be non-empty. An empty or missing 'platforms' object yields 'runtime.json: no platforms defined' — the manifest is structurally valid JSON but carries no runtime entries to install.

Source

Thrown at g4f-go/download.go:480

	}
	exe, err := pythonExecutable(binDir)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	if _, err := os.Stat(exe); err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("python runtime extracted but %s is missing", exe)
	}
	return exe, nil
}

// parseRuntimeManifest decodes a RuntimeManifest from bytes.
func parseRuntimeManifest(data []byte) (*RuntimeManifest, error) {
	var m RuntimeManifest
	if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &m); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if len(m.Platforms) == 0 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("runtime.json: no platforms defined")
	}
	return &m, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 973504e177)

Solutions

Inspect runtime.json and confirm it has a populated lowercase 'platforms' object with per-OS/arch entries
Restore the manifest from the upstream repo instead of a locally stripped copy
Match the manifest schema to the Go struct (platforms -> map[string]RuntimeSpec with url/size/sha256)
If embedding the manifest, rebuild the binary after fixing the JSON

Example fix

// before
// runtime.json: {"version": "1.0"}  -> no platforms defined

// after
// runtime.json
{
  "platforms": {
    "linux-x64":  {"url": "https://host/r-linux-x64.tar.gz", "size": 29140615, "sha256": "..."},
    "darwin-arm64": {"url": "https://host/r-darwin-arm64.tar.gz", "size": 1, "sha256": "..."}
  }
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

var m RuntimeManifest
if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &m); err == nil && len(m.Platforms) == 0 {
    // reject the manifest before install: no platforms to serve
}

Type guard

func manifestHasPlatforms(m *RuntimeManifest) bool {
    return m != nil && len(m.Platforms) > 0
}

Try / catch

m, err := parseRuntimeManifest(data)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no platforms defined") {
        // fetch/restore the canonical runtime.json
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Lint runtime.json in CI: non-empty platforms, lowercase keys, url/size/sha256 present
Never hand-strip manifest entries without replacing the file
Rebuild binaries after embedding a fixed manifest

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a runtime.json whose 'platforms' key is absent, null, or {} (a template file, a mistakenly stripped config, or a failed write that produced '{}').

Common situations: Hand-editing runtime.json and deleting entries; CI copying a placeholder manifest; a fetch of the manifest that returned an empty JSON object; key-name drift ('Platforms' vs 'platforms') in a differently-versioned file.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of xtekky/gpt4free@973504e177 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5a47d115978c68dc. Report an issue: GitHub.