zed-industries/zed · error

Path {path_to_check:?} is the workspace root for project in

Error message

Path {path_to_check:?} is the workspace root for project in {closest_package_json_path:?}, but it has no prettier installed

What it means

While walking up from the buffer looking for prettier, locate_prettier_installation reached the package.json that declares workspaces (the workspace root) without finding a prettier installation in any node_modules along the way. The root itself has no prettier dependency, so formatting cannot proceed with the project's prettier.

Source

Thrown at crates/prettier/src/prettier.rs:132

                } else {
                    match &closest_package_json_path {
                        None => closest_package_json_path = Some(path_to_check.clone()),
                        Some(closest_package_json_path) => {
                            match package_json_contents.get("workspaces") {
                                Some(serde_json::Value::Array(workspaces)) => {
                                    let subproject_path = closest_package_json_path.strip_prefix(&path_to_check).expect("traversing path parents, should be able to strip prefix");
                                    if workspaces.iter().filter_map(|value| {
                                        if let serde_json::Value::String(s) = value {
                                            Some(s.clone())
                                        } else {
                                            log::warn!("Skipping non-string 'workspaces' value: {value:?}");
                                            None
                                        }
                                    }).any(|workspace_definition| {
                                        workspace_definition == subproject_path.to_string_lossy() || PathMatcher::new(&[workspace_definition], PathStyle::local()).ok().is_some_and(
                                            |path_matcher| RelPath::new(subproject_path, PathStyle::local()).is_ok_and(|path|  path_matcher.is_match(path)))
                                    }) {
                                        anyhow::ensure!(has_prettier_in_node_modules(fs, &path_to_check).await?,
                                            "Path {path_to_check:?} is the workspace root for project in \
                                            {closest_package_json_path:?}, but it has no prettier installed"
                                        );
                                        log::info!(
                                            "Found prettier path {path_to_check:?} in the workspace \
                                            root for project in {closest_package_json_path:?}"
                                        );
                                        return Ok(ControlFlow::Continue(Some(path_to_check)));
                                    } else {
                                        log::warn!(
                                            "Skipping path {path_to_check:?} workspace root with \
                                            workspaces {workspaces:?} that have no prettier installed"
                                        );
                                    }
                                }
                                Some(unknown) => log::error!(
                                    "Failed to parse workspaces for {path_to_check:?} from package.json, \
                                    got {unknown:?}. Skipping."

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

1. Install prettier in the workspace root: `npm install --save-dev prettier` at the root package.json
2. Or add prettier to the specific sub-project being formatted
3. Run npm/yarn/pnpm install to make sure node_modules is populated after adding the dependency

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/prettier/src/prettier.rs:132 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@f4178619ac (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c84b39173609890. Report an issue: GitHub.