Getting Build Failed Error when trying to build react project

[prasanna-ph]

Hi,

I followed below article and created a react project using ServiceNow SDK but when I am trying to build the project using npm run build I am getting error shown in the attached screenshot, do anyone have any idea about why I am getting this error?

C:\SN_DSK> npm run build

> react-ui-page-ts-sample@0.0.1 build
> now-sdk build

[now-sdk] Initiating the build process ...
[now-sdk] Building project from C:\SN_DSK...
[now-sdk] Running script "prebuild" from C:/SN_DSK/now.prebuild.mjs
[now-sdk] ERROR: Build failed: 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:'

Node version : v20.18.0
Npm : 8.19.3

User interface development with React 

[M Iftikhar]

Hi @prasanna-ph,

The error isn’t about your code specifically.It’s coming from how Node handles Windows paths in the ServiceNow SDK build process. 

Things to check/try: 

• Make sure you’re on the latest @servicenow/sdk. 

• Delete node_modules and package-lock.json, then run npm install again. 

• The error Received protocol 'c:' usually means an import path is being treated as a URL. Check now.prebuild.mjs (or its dependencies) for absolute paths like C:/.... They need to be formatted as file:///C:/... for Node’s ESM loader. 

• If you keep hitting this on native Windows, running the project from WSL (Linux subsystem) avoids the Windows C:/ path issue entirely. 

Most people have resolved this either by updating to the latest SDK or by correcting the Windows file path handling. 

Thanks & Regards,  
Muhammad Iftikhar  

If my response helped, please mark it as the accepted solution so others can benefit as well. 

[BryceG · Accepted solution]

Hi @prasanna-ph looks like you ran into a know bug we have with Windows.  The 4.0.1 version should resolve this for you, and we are hoping to publish that today so keep an eye out.

[prasanna-ph]

Hi @BryceG,

Thank you, Updating to 4.0.1 solved my issue.