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contract emit crashes (CLI.UNEXPECTED, ERR_INVALID_ARG_VALUE) with the relative contract path that orm init scaffolds #205
Description
Summary
orm init scaffolds prisma.config.ts with a relative contract path:
orm: ormConfig({
contract: "./src/prisma/contract.prisma",
db: { connection: process.env['DATABASE_URL']! },
}),With that config, contract emit crashes:
CLI.UNEXPECTED: The argument 'filename' must be a file URL object, file URL string, or absolute path
string. Received './src/prisma/package.json' (ERR_INVALID_ARG_VALUE)
Changing the config to an absolute path (new URL('./src/prisma/contract.prisma', import.meta.url).pathname) makes the same command succeed and emit contract.json/contract.d.ts normally.
Where it breaks
In @prisma/orm-toolchain@8.0.0-rc.2 (dist ref-*.mjs), validateContractDeps does:
const resolve = createRequire(`${projectRoot}/package.json`);and projectRoot arrives as the relative ./src/prisma derived from the config's contract path, but node:module's createRequire requires an absolute path or file URL. Either the config loader should absolutize contract against the config file's directory before handing it to the toolchain, or the toolchain should resolve projectRoot to an absolute path itself.
Filing here because the repro is entirely through prisma-cli commands and the config loader (cli-engine loadConfig) may be the layer that should absolutize; transfer to the ORM repo if it's purely an orm-toolchain fix.
Repro caveat
Reproduced on macOS / Node 24.11.1 with the rc.4 CLI shell and a locally patched @prisma/cli-engine built from repo HEAD, because the published engine crashes the CLI at startup (#202). I could not verify against a fully published stack for that reason. Today users hit this bug's surface anyway: orm init's final emit step fails with CLI.INIT_EMIT_FAILED due to #202, and once that is fixed, this crash is the next thing the default scaffold + contract emit flow runs into (unless the published engine absolutizes the path where the HEAD engine does not).
Found while validating the docs quickstart end to end (prisma/web#8151).
🤖 Filed with Claude Code on behalf of datta@prisma.io
Activity
ankur-arch commentedon Aug 18, 2026
Reproduced and fixed. Evidence trail:
orm init --target postgres --authoring pslscaffoldscontract: "./src/prisma/contract.prisma";contract emitthen fails withCLI.UNEXPECTED: The argument 'filename' must be a file URL object, file URL string, or absolute path string. Received './src/prisma/package.json' (ERR_INVALID_ARG_VALUE)— after the emit step itself reports ok. Switching the config to an absolute path (new URL(...).pathname) makes the same command succeed, exactly as reported.@prisma/orm-toolchain@8.0.0-rc.3(published yesterday, what the rc.5 CLI will pin) has a byte-identicalvalidateContractDeps— still broken.ConfigSectionvalidator receives only the raw value — no config-file path), so the engine cannot absolutize a path field it doesn't know exists; andvalidateContractDepsis the one place that requires an absolute path (createRequire), while every other consumer of the relative path (the emit step,projectImportRoot) already resolves it against cwd.createRequiresees it, with a regression test. Verified end to end: the defaultorm initscaffold +contract emitcompletes (ok: true, both artifacts written) with that build overlaid, where rc.2/rc.3 crash.Leaving this open until the fix ships in a published
@prisma/orm-toolchainthat the CLI pins (it rides the next toolchain release + the CLI's automated product-version bump).ankur-arch commentedon Aug 18, 2026
Update now that
prisma@next= 8.0.0-rc.5 works (#202 closed): the repro caveat in the issue body no longer applies — this reproduces on a fully published stack, no repo builds involved:rc.5 pins
@prisma/orm-toolchain@8.0.0-rc.3, whosevalidateContractDepsis unchanged. Fix remains prisma/orm#30061 (all checks green, awaiting review); it reaches users via the next toolchain release + the CLI's automated product-version bump.ankur-arch commentedon Aug 18, 2026
Fix status update: the toolchain fix landed on prisma/prisma main via prisma/orm#30064 (merged today, same resolve-before-createRequire change with a regression test; my prisma/orm#30061 is closed as superseded by it). This issue closes once a published
@prisma/orm-toolchainrelease carries it and the CLI's automated product-version bump picks that release up.wmadden-electric commentedon Sep 27, 2026
Fixed by prisma/orm#30064, which ships in
@prisma/orm-toolchain@8.0.0-rc.12(inprisma@8.0.0-rc.17). Verified 2026-09-27 against the published rc.17:prisma orm init --target postgres --authoring pslscaffoldscontract: "./src/prisma/contract.prisma", andprisma contract emitsucceeds with that relative path, both from the project root and from subdirectories.