Firebase-tools: Error on firebase serve "An unexpected error has occurred."

What does your firebase.json look like?

I think you probably have a misformatted firebase.json. Best way to fix it is to ensure that firebase.json looks like:

{
...
"hosting": {
"public": "public"
}
}

Please re-open if this does not fix it.

Had the same problem. the default firebase.json seems to be missing this. quite confusing for noobies like me..

hi bug is sloved
firebase serve
change
sudo firebase serve

In Mac to start a local server we have to giv admin rights or use sudo at start.

by using

$sudo firebase serve

problem fix.

If you installed firebase tools without using sudo (i.e. npm install -g firebase-tools not sudo npm install -g firebase-tools), then you shouldn't have to run any commands with sudo. If you are having trouble doing npm installs without sudo, then this is a helpful article on how to fix npm permissions: https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/fixing-npm-permissions

@laurenzlong even though I installed firebase-tools without sudo, I need to use sudo permission while running firebase serve. Earlier it used to work without sudo, but now not. I'm using nvm. Here are the environment config.

• nvm - 0.33.11
• node - v10.11.0
• firebase-tools - 6.3.0
• I recently updated my os. os version is macOS Mojave 10.14.4 Beta. I don't know file permission read issue arise due to os upgrade.

Here is the error from firebase-debug.log.

[info] i  functions: Preparing to emulate functions.
[debug] [2019-01-30T09:54:05.574Z] Fetching environment
[debug] [2019-01-30T09:54:05.975Z] Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/Users/a/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json'
    at Object.openSync (fs.js:436:3)
    at Object.writeFileSync (fs.js:1168:35)
    at module.exports (/Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/ensureDefaultCredentials.js:28:8)
    at FunctionsEmulator.start (/Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/functionsEmulator.js:106:5)
    at Object.start (/Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/serve/functions.js:7:33)
    at /Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/serve/index.js:15:23
    at arrayMap (/Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:639:23)
    at Function.map (/Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:9556:14)
    at _serve (/Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/serve/index.js:13:26)
    at Command.module.exports.Command.description.option.option.option.option.before.action [as _action] (/Users/a/.nvm/versions/node/v10.11.0/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/commands/serve.js:55:12)
[error] 
[error] Error: An unexpected error has occurred.

@neerajyadav Make sure your /Users/a/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json file has the correct permissions. From the error that's being returned, the CLI is trying to read that file but doesn't have access to it.

@thechenky I'm assuming this file is created when either when we install firebase-tools or when we do firebase login. I haven't created the file manually. So by default it should be created with permissions accessible to firebase-tools.

@neerajyadav can you open a new issue with the full contents of your debug log? It's easier to track new issues like this as... well, new issues. You have most of the information ready that the new issue template asks, and it would be great if you could provide the output of ls -al /Users/a/.config/gcloud/application_default_credentials.json as that will tell us what the permissions and owner are. Thanks!

Sorry for late reply. I was busy with project work and didn't find enough time to look at it. @bkendall I created another bug #1136 with output from ls -al.

sudo firebase serve

Hi @laurenzlong, I'm not sure I should be opening a new issue, for this one:

Matts-MBP:forms matt$ firebase serve

=== Serving from '/Users/matt/WebstormProjects/forms'...

✔  functions: Using node@12 from host.
✔  functions: Emulator started at http://localhost:5001
i  functions: Watching "/Users/matt/WebstormProjects/forms/functions" for Cloud Functions...
i  hosting: Serving hosting files from: build/web
✔  hosting: Local server: http://localhost:5000

Error: An unexpected error has occurred.
Matts-MBP:forms matt$ 

Lauren, here's my package.json:

{
  "name": "functions",
  "scripts": {
    "lint": "tslint --project tsconfig.json",
    "build": "tsc",
    "serve": "npm run build && firebase serve --only functions",
    "shell": "npm run build && firebase functions:shell",
    "start": "npm run shell",
    "deploy": "firebase deploy --only functions",
    "logs": "firebase functions:log"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": "12"
  },
  "main": "lib/index.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "firebase-admin": "^8.0.0",
    "firebase-functions": "^3.0.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "tslint": "^5.12.0",
    "typescript": "^3.2.2"
  },
  "private": true
}

firebase.json:

{
  "database": {
    "rules": "database.rules.json"
  },
  "firestore": {
    "rules": "firestore.rules",
    "indexes": "firestore.indexes.json"
  },
  "functions": {
    "predeploy": [
      "npm --prefix \"$RESOURCE_DIR\" run lint",
      "npm --prefix \"$RESOURCE_DIR\" run build"
    ],
    "source": "functions"
  },
  "hosting": {
    "public": "build/web",
    "ignore": [
      "firebase.json",
      "**/.*",
      "**/node_modules/**"
    ],
    "rewrites": [
      {
        "source": "**",
        "destination": "/index.html"
      }
    ]
  },
  "storage": {
    "rules": "storage.rules"
  }
}

"public": "build/web" is for AngularDart, which works.

@hpoit open a new issue with the required information (including relevant parts of the debug log). Thanks.