formatjs cli compile error: messages are missing for the specified locales

formatjs cli compile error: messages are missing for the specified locales

TL;DR

Fixes the FormatJS CLI compile failure when target locales have no extracted messages. Run extraction before compiling, or drop the empty locale from the compile list. Use when formatjs compile aborts naming missing locales. Not for ICU syntax errors.

The error

Error: messages are missing for the specified locales: fr, de. Did you forget to run extract?

Fix it

Step 1: Check what extraction produced

ls -la lang/ | head -10

Expected: You see which locale files exist and which are missing.

Step 2: Run extraction first

npx formatjs extract 'src/**/*.{ts,tsx}' --out-file lang/en.json

Expected: Extraction writes the source messages file.

Step 3: Re-run the compile

npx formatjs compile lang/en.json --ast --out-file compiled/en.json

Expected: Compilation succeeds for the locales that have messages.

When to use this

• formatjs compile aborts saying messages are missing for locales
• A new locale was added but never extracted

When NOT to use this

• Compilation fails on a specific message, fix the ICU syntax
• Extraction itself crashes, check the parser config

Tool and version compatibility

• @formatjs/cli 6
• Babel or TS extraction pipelines

Variant phrasings

error in CI only

CI compiles without running extract first. Chain the steps in the pipeline.

only some locales missing

Compile just the locales that have messages, or seed empty ones explicitly.

Why it happens

The compile step converts extracted messages into the runtime AST format. It refuses to compile locales with no extracted messages because the output bundle would silently lack those languages.

Edge cases

• Glob patterns that miss new directories produce partial extraction
• The AST output format must match what your runtime loader expects
• Merging extracted output by hand can drop the file headers the compiler wants

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_UpggK8oBTRDueDec-OWxIA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_UpggK8oBTRDueDec-OWxIA

Thread query: formatjs cli compile error: messages are missing for the specified locales

TL;DR: Fixes the FormatJS CLI compile failure when target locales have no extracted messages. Run extraction before compiling, or drop the empty locale from the compile list. Use when formatjs compile aborts naming missing locales. Not for ICU syntax errors.