# no prodigy.json file

**URL:** <https://support.prodi.gy/t/no-prodigy-json-file/426>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Tags:** install, done, solved\
**Created:** [March 21, 2018, 10:05am UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/no-prodigy-json-file/426 "2018-03-21T10:05:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![a.dumas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@a.dumas](https://support.prodi.gy/u/a.dumas)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 10:05am UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/no-prodigy-json-file/426/1 "2018-03-21T10:05:58Z")

</div>

Hello,

I am french and i will do my best in english 😉  
I bought prodigy yesterday, installation worked but prodigy.json is not present.  
I tried to create it but when i start :  
python3.6 -m prodigy news\_headlines test\_dataset “Silicon Valley” -F /home/a.dumas/python/code/prodigy/recipe\_test.py

if i create my own prodigy.json file :

Traceback (most recent call last):  
File “/usr/lib64/python3.6/runpy.py”, line 193, in \_run\_module\_as\_main  
“ **main** ”, mod\_spec)  
File “/usr/lib64/python3.6/runpy.py”, line 85, in \_run\_code  
exec(code, run\_globals)  
File “/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/prodigy/ **main**.py”, line 256, in   
server(controller, controller.config)  
File “/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/prodigy/app.py”, line 28, in server  
help\_path = Path(config[‘instructions’])  
File “/usr/lib64/python3.6/pathlib.py”, line 979, in **new**  
self = cls.\_from\_parts(args, init=False)  
File “/usr/lib64/python3.6/pathlib.py”, line 654, in \_from\_parts  
drv, root, parts = self.\_parse\_args(args)  
File “/usr/lib64/python3.6/pathlib.py”, line 638, in \_parse\_args  
a = os.fspath(a)  
TypeError: expected str, bytes or os.PathLike object, not bool **strong text**

if not =\> prodigy say “Error : Can’t fetch project and tasks, make sure the server is running correctly”

OS is CentOS 7.4 x64.

Do you have an idea ?

Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ines](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/support.prodi.gy/ines/32/3_2.png) [@ines](https://support.prodi.gy/u/ines)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 12:09pm UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/no-prodigy-json-file/426/2 "2018-03-21T12:09:17Z")

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Merci! 😊

Thanks for the report! I think the problem here is that Prodigy will look for a `.prodigy` directory in your user home that contains a file `prodigy.json`. If it doesn't exist, Prodigy will try to create it – and for some reason, this seems to fail in your case. (Maybe it's something related to user permissions?) You can always use the `PRODIGY_HOME` environment variable to specify a custom home directory for Prodigy.

> [@a.dumas](#):
>
> if i create my own prodigy.json file :

Did you copy-paste the `prodjgy.json` defaults from the docs? I think we made a mistake in our `prodigy.json` docs and/or the way the server reads in this value of `"instructions"`. So if your `prodigy.json` has `"instructions": false` or something similar, try removing that!

We currently check if `"instructions"` exists and then assume it's a file – instead, we should check if it exists **and** is a string (and not `false`) before using it. That's why it fails on this line:

```python
help_path = Path(config[‘instructions’])

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![a.dumas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@a.dumas](https://support.prodi.gy/u/a.dumas)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/no-prodigy-json-file/426/3 "2018-03-21T13:49:55Z")

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i am using PRODIGY\_HOME environment variable.  
echo $PRODIGY\_HOME =\> /home/a.dumas/prodigy (created manually too)

And i copy-paste the prodigy.json default from website ([https://prodi.gy/docs/install](https://prodi.gy/docs/install)).

Instructions has been removed and it’s ok now.

Thanks for your help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ines](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/support.prodi.gy/ines/32/3_2.png) [@ines](https://support.prodi.gy/u/ines)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 2:37pm UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/no-prodigy-json-file/426/4 "2018-03-21T14:37:56Z")

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Thanks for updating, glad it worked! I’ve already fixed the problem in Prodigy and it will be included in the next release 👍

**Edit:** Just released `v1.4.1`, which should handle `"instructions": false` properly!