Jadpo is experimental and not ready for production. These docs follow the compiler's main branch as of 5 Nov 2026. What's built · Install 0.3.0
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ReferenceErrors

ErrorsTools · rule

toolchain.scaffold_read_failed

On this page

You ran jadpo new or jadpo package new on a path Jadpo can't look into, such as a folder you can't read or a path through a file.

Area 14, Tools; not declinable; the next step is usually the human's.

Why Jadpo refuses it

jadpo new writes only into a folder that doesn't exist yet or is empty, so before writing it looks at what is there. When it can't look, it can't tell whether writing would overwrite something, so it writes nothing and says why looking failed.

Jadpo won't change permissions or pick another path for you: both are decisions about your files.

What it looks like

notes is a file, and the path asks for a project inside it:

shell
touch notesjadpo new notes/todo-app
jadpo new

error notes/todo-app couldn't be looked at

reason
jadpo new checks that the folder is empty before it writes, and reading it failed: Not a directory (os error 20). It wrote nothing.
next
Check that notes/todo-app can be read, then run jadpo new again (human)
rule
toolchain.scaffold_read_failed
help
https://jadpo.dev/docs/errors/toolchain.scaffold_read_failed

(human) at the end of the next: line tells your coding agent to stop and ask you which fix you want, because the choice is yours to make: it decides where the project goes.

A folder you aren't allowed to read is refused the same way, with Permission denied as the reason.

How to fix it

If the path was a mistake, name a folder that doesn't exist yet, or an empty one:

shell
jadpo new todo-app
output
Created todo-app    jadpo  X.Y    route  POST /hello    files  14 writtennext: cd todo-app && jadpo dev  serves it on http://localhost:3000

The project is in todo-app, and notes is untouched.

If the folder is one you aren't allowed to read, let yourself read it, then run the command again:

shell
chmod u+rx todo-appjadpo new todo-app

jadpo new sees that the folder is empty and writes the project into it.

Markdown for agents: /docs/errors/toolchain.scaffold_read_failed.md.Built from Jadpo main at aee2e8f.