# App.json not found

**URL:** <https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317>\
**Category:** Developers\
**Tags:** app, homey-pro\
**Created:** [October 4, 2024, 12:50am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317 "2024-10-04T00:50:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![D3X](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/d3x/32/114780_2.png) [@D3X](https://community.homey.app/u/D3X)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 12:50am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/1 "2024-10-04T00:50:03Z")

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I experience a strange error.  
Basically a normal starting-app. minor modifications, but no removed files or similar. Even tried the same with a completely blank app. Same error.  
Trying to app.run ends up with the error.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/b/5/b56da7b318f5357d03cda6685de5979fc703ed53.png)

I run on Windows, but in a dev-container based on debian.  
I own a Homey Pro and have it standing next to me. Its in the same network, what doesnt seem to matter too much.

Anyone got ideas or troubleshooting steps?

EDIT: also added github issue: [Cannot find module '/app/app.json' · Issue #364 · athombv/homey-apps-sdk-issues · GitHub](https://github.com/athombv/homey-apps-sdk-issues/issues/364)

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**Author:** ![robertklep](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/robertklep/32/160628_2.png) [@robertklep](https://community.homey.app/u/robertklep)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 4:58am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/2 "2024-10-04T04:58:40Z")

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> [@D3X](#):
>
> I own a Homey Pro and have it standing next to me

Try running the app on your Homey Pro directly:

```auto
homey app run --remote

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![D3X](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/d3x/32/114780_2.png) [@D3X](https://community.homey.app/u/D3X)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 8:11am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/3 "2024-10-04T08:11:54Z")

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According to that log it seems to do that anyways. It also requires a connected homey pro.

I selected honey pro at app creation.

Will try anyways and update the results here

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertklep](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/robertklep/32/160628_2.png) [@robertklep](https://community.homey.app/u/robertklep)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 9:15am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/4 "2024-10-04T09:15:12Z")

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> [@D3X](#):
>
> According to that log it seems to do that anyways. It also requires a connected homey pro.

It says “Starting XXX in a Docker container” (but Docker installs indeed still need a Homey).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![D3X](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/d3x/32/114780_2.png) [@D3X](https://community.homey.app/u/D3X)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 9:31am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/5 "2024-10-04T09:31:36Z")

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Ok, i was thinking its running a container on the homey.

`-r` actually results in a different error, which is an actual code-error i may be able to fix

Is the variant without `-r` then a variant to run phone-apps only?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertklep](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/robertklep/32/160628_2.png) [@robertklep](https://community.homey.app/u/robertklep)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 9:39am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/6 "2024-10-04T09:39:27Z")

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> [@D3X](#):
>
> Is the variant without `-r` then a variant to run phone-apps only?

Without `-r/--remote` (so using Docker) is for developing Homey Cloud apps. For some reason Athom made that the default 🤷🏼‍♂️

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![D3X](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/d3x/32/114780_2.png) [@D3X](https://community.homey.app/u/D3X)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 9:47am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/7 "2024-10-04T09:47:30Z")

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ok, thats totally fine. what is not totally fine is, that they do not check what kind of app your trying to run, and alerting you about it or even automatically switch … i need a homey anyways.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertklep](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/robertklep/32/160628_2.png) [@robertklep](https://community.homey.app/u/robertklep)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 9:59am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/8 "2024-10-04T09:59:25Z")

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You can still use Docker to develop Homey Pro apps, I just find that using the Docker setup is of limited use and I don’t really like having to run Docker continuously _just_ for Homey app development.

The error that you get seems to be related to the Docker container, that’s why I suggested using `--remote` as a workaround. I noticed you posted an issue on the SDK Github repo about it, let’s hope it gets picked up.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![D3X](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/d3x/32/114780_2.png) [@D3X](https://community.homey.app/u/D3X)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 11:32am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/9 "2024-10-04T11:32:06Z")

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it seems hard to actually find the code for that error i have seen, or else i would have investigated myself and tried to fix it.  
is the code for the ecosystem closed source or something, or where can i find this homey apprunner lib?

the docker setup seems a lot faster than the homey remote installation and debugging. it takes quite some time to build and deploy

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertklep](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/robertklep/32/160628_2.png) [@robertklep](https://community.homey.app/u/robertklep)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 11:34am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/10 "2024-10-04T11:34:06Z")

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It’s not readily available, but it’s part of the Docker image that gets downloaded, and Docker containers/images are browsable.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![D3X](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/d3x/32/114780_2.png) [@D3X](https://community.homey.app/u/D3X)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 11:42am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/11 "2024-10-04T11:42:18Z")

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is there a commonly used discord for homey devs?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertklep](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/robertklep/32/160628_2.png) [@robertklep](https://community.homey.app/u/robertklep)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 11:42am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/12 "2024-10-04T11:42:45Z")

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Just Slack: [https://slack.athom.com/](https://slack.athom.com/) (channel `#developers`)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RonnyW](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/ronnyw/32/10879_2.png) [@RonnyW](https://community.homey.app/u/RonnyW)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/13 "2024-10-26T12:04:23Z")

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Short update…as suggested by @robertklep it seems it’s a race condition. If files are stored on a slower network drive, they are not upload fast enougt to the Docker container.  
Running the same repository on a local SSD drive solved this issue.

Details:  
[Cannot find module '/app/app.json' · Issue #364 · athombv/homey-apps-sdk-issues · GitHub](https://github.com/athombv/homey-apps-sdk-issues/issues/364#issuecomment-2439551879)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![D3X](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/d3x/32/114780_2.png) [@D3X](https://community.homey.app/u/D3X)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/app-json-not-found/117317/14 "2024-10-26T19:10:35Z")

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commented on github as well. i dont believe its a speed issue. but rather an issue of where the files are stored and how docker can access them or not.
