[Bug]: (Windows) Failed to load app config via ESM

[jchu634]

Preflight checklist

• I searched existing issues to avoid duplicates.
• I can reproduce this issue on the latest main (or have provided the exact version/commit below).

Component

packages/create-sparkling-app

What happened?

Got error when trying to run Android with fresh app using latest rc or lateston Windows:

Failed to read app config for autolink, using defaults: Error: Failed to load app config via ESM: node:internal/modules/run_main:107
    triggerUncaughtException(
    ^
Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME]: Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'
    at throwIfUnsupportedURLScheme (node:internal/modules/esm/load:183:11)
    at defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:78:3)
    at nextLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/hooks:748:28)
    at Hooks.load (node:internal/modules/esm/hooks:385:26)
    at ModuleLoader.load (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:837:35)
    at ModuleLoader.loadAndTranslate (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:612:31)
    at #createModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:643:36)
    at #getJobFromResolveResult (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:353:34)
    at ModuleLoader.getModuleJobForImport (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:318:41)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5) {
  code: 'ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME'
}

Steps to reproduce

1. Create new project
2. Install dependencies
3. Try to run npm run run:android

Expected behavior

App opens with the Android Emulator

Actual behavior

Errors out and exits
Failed to read app config for autolink, using defaults: Error: Failed to load app config via ESM

Logs / screenshots

PS C:\Users\USER\Documents\Repos> npm create sparkling-app@rc testApp2

> npx
> create-sparkling-app testApp2

┌  create-sparkling-app v2.1.0-rc.12
  ↳ Will create in testApp2
│
◇  Choose a template
│  sparkling-default (Official Sparkling starter project)
│
◇  Android Gradle build files
│  Kotlin DSL (.gradle.kts)
│
◇  Select development tools
│  none
│
◇  Select optional tooling
│  none
│
◇  Package namespace (Android package / iOS bundle id)
│  com.testapp2
│
◇  Initialize a git repository?
│  Yes
Installing npm template: sparkling-app-template@latest
Building project with 2 steps
Running create-app actions...
│
◇  Finished action: create-app-project (took 198ms)

Output paths:
  - C:\Users\USER\Documents\Repos\testApp2

All actions completed.
│
◇  Install JS dependencies now with npm?
│  Yes
│
◇  Installed with npm
│
◇  Initialized git repository
│
◇  ✔ Project created at testApp2 ───────────────────────────────────────────╮
│                                                                           │
│  cd testApp2                                                              │
│  Dependencies installed. If you change tooling, re-run install manually.  │
│  npm run run:ios                                                          │
│  npm run run:android                                                      │
│                                                                           │
│  Tip iOS: ensure Xcode Command Line Tools are installed.                  │
│  Tip Android: ensure ANDROID_HOME and SDK platforms are set.              │
│                                                                           │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
│
└  Happy hacking!

PS C:\Users\USER\Documents\Repos> cd .\testApp2\
PS C:\Users\USER\Documents\Repos\testApp2> npm run run:android

> testApp2@1.0.0 run:android
> sparkling-app-cli run:android

Failed to read app config for autolink, using defaults: Error: Failed to load app config via ESM: node:internal/modules/run_main:107
    triggerUncaughtException(
    ^
Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME]: Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'
    at throwIfUnsupportedURLScheme (node:internal/modules/esm/load:183:11)
    at defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:78:3)
    at nextLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/hooks:748:28)
    at Hooks.load (node:internal/modules/esm/hooks:385:26)
    at ModuleLoader.load (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:837:35)
    at ModuleLoader.loadAndTranslate (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:612:31)
    at #createModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:643:36)
    at #getJobFromResolveResult (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:353:34)
    at ModuleLoader.getModuleJobForImport (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:318:41)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5) {
  code: 'ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME'
}

Node.js v24.14.1
Autolinked 1 module(s) for ANDROID.
Building Lynx bundle with config from app.config.ts
node:internal/child_process:286
      const err = new ErrnoException(exitCode, syscall);
                  ^

Error: spawn rspeedy ENOENT
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:286:19)
    at onErrorNT (node:internal/child_process:484:16)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21) {
  errno: -4058,
  code: 'ENOENT',
  syscall: 'spawn rspeedy',
  path: 'rspeedy',
  spawnargs: [
    'build',
    '--config',
    'C:\\Users\\USER\\Documents\\Repos\\testApp2\\.sparkling\\lynx.config.ts'
  ]
}

Environment

• Host OS: Windows
• Target platform (Android/iOS): Android
• Node.js version: v24.114.1
• pnpm version:
• Lynx version:
• Sparkling version / commit: 2.1.0-rc.12 or 2.0.1

Contribution

• I’m willing to submit a PR to fix this.

[wwxiaoqi]

I have this problem too. May I ask when the new version will be released?

update：

Create scripts/patch-sparkling-cli.cjs in the project.

patch-sparkling-cli.cjs

#!/usr/bin/env node
/**
 * Patch sparkling-app-cli for Windows compatibility.
 *
 * Two Windows-only bugs in sparkling-app-cli:
 *
 * 1. dist/utils/exec.js uses `spawn(command, args, { shell: false })`.
 *    On Windows, Node's spawn (CreateProcess) cannot resolve the
 *    extensionless `rspeedy` shim in node_modules/.bin, so
 *    `npm run build` fails with ENOENT. Fix: shell:true on win32 only.
 *
 * 2. dist/config.js passes the result of require.resolve('ts-node/esm')
 *    straight to `node --loader <path>`. On Windows that resolves to a
 *    raw `D:\...` path, which Node rejects as an unsupported `d:`
 *    URL scheme (ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME). Fix: convert to a
 *    file:// URL via pathToFileURL.
 *
 */
'use strict'

const fs = require('node:fs')
const path = require('node:path')

const cliDist = path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'node_modules', 'sparkling-app-cli', 'dist')

const patches = [
  {
    file: path.join(cliDist, 'utils', 'exec.js'),
    old: '        shell: false,',
    next: "        shell: process.platform === 'win32',",
  },
  {
    file: path.join(cliDist, 'config.js'),
    old: "        esmLoader = esmReq.resolve('ts-node/esm');",
    next: "        esmLoader = (0, url_1.pathToFileURL)(esmReq.resolve('ts-node/esm')).href;",
  },
]

let changed = 0
for (const { file, old, next } of patches) {
  if (!fs.existsSync(file)) {
    console.warn('[patch-sparkling-cli] target not found, skipping:', file)
    continue
  }
  let source = fs.readFileSync(file, 'utf8')
  if (source.includes(next)) {
    console.log('[patch-sparkling-cli] already applied:', path.relative(process.cwd(), file))
    continue
  }
  if (!source.includes(old)) {
    console.error('[patch-sparkling-cli] unexpected file content, patch aborted:', file)
    process.exit(1)
  }
  source = source.replace(old, next)
  fs.writeFileSync(file, source)
  changed++
  console.log('[patch-sparkling-cli] patched', path.relative(process.cwd(), file))
}

if (changed === 0) {
  console.log('[patch-sparkling-cli] nothing to do')
}

Next, in the project package.json, add:

{
  ....
  "scripts": {
    "build": "sparkling-app-cli build --copy",
    "autolink": "sparkling-app-cli autolink",
    "test": "vitest run --passWithNoTests",
    "run:android": "sparkling-app-cli run:android",
    "run:ios": "sparkling-app-cli run:ios --copy",
+    "postinstall": "node scripts/patch-sparkling-cli.cjs"
  }
}

try npm run build.