topic Re: VS code build error - ninja: error: loading 'build.ninja': in MCUXpresso for VSCode

VS code build error - ninja: error: loading 'build.ninja':

dan_ash — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 17:55:54 GMT

I was happily using VS Code building RT700 code using mcuxsdk repo 25.12.00.

All the sudden my projects would not build and I saw message:

Workspace is /c:/projects/mcuxsdk/mcuxsdk/examples/demo_apps/hello_world
build task started....
"C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake.EXE" --build C:/projects/mcuxsdk/mcuxsdk/examples/demo_apps/hello_world/debug --target all --
ninja: error: loading 'build.ninja': The system cannot find the file specified.

I am sure I did something.

I removed the repo and re-cloned. Reimported core0 hello world.

Any ideas? Thank you.

Still same.

I saw community post: https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-Processors/I-have-a-problem-to-run-a-project-and-gave-me-an-Error-to-build/m-p/2068732

The post states the files need the following variables set properly

1) mcux_include.json - ARMGCC_DIR

My file: "ARMGCC_DIR": "C:/NXP/MCUXpressoIDE_25.6.136/ide/tools"

2) .vscode\mcuxpresso-tools.json - toolchainPath

My file: "toolchainPath": "C:/NXP/MCUXpressoIDE_25.6.136/ide/tools"

Re: VS code build error - ninja: error: loading 'build.ninja':

fsl_jason_yu — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 02:26:29 GMT

Hi @dan_ash ,

I didn't see this issue before. Could you please confirm:

1. The new cloned repo is clean.

2. The imported project folder is clean.

3. When you see the error, does the file "ninja.build" exist?

Re: VS code build error - ninja: error: loading 'build.ninja':

dan_ash — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 02:39:16 GMT

@fsl_jason_yu ,

This is all I see.

No ninja.build, but it was there before when things works.

Re: VS code build error - ninja: error: loading 'build.ninja':

dan_ash — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 03:31:42 GMT

After chatting with Jason, I realized I had not seen the first error which was missing yaml.

What happened was I had some other issue and installed Python (3.13) from VS Code (extensions), but I already had a working 3.14 I installed in Windows, which had yaml. I had also copied west.exe to that Python folder. And my path had the 3.14 folder.

Once I uninstalled (Windows settings apps uninstall) the 3.13 I installed from VS code everything worked again.

Long story, 3.13 did not have yaml, but I decided to simply remove it and rely on the original 3.14 I had.

Sorry I went back more in the build and found

-- Ninja version: 1.13.1

CMake Error at C:/projects/mcuxsdk/mcuxsdk/cmake/extension/mcux_module.cmake:74 (message):

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "C:\projects\mcuxsdk\mcuxsdk\scripts\misc\mcux_module.py", line 28, in <module>

import yaml

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'yaml'

Call Stack (most recent call first):

c:/projects/mcuxsdk/mcuxsdk/cmake/extension/mcux.cmake:279 (include)

CMakeLists.txt:5 (project)

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

Configure finished with return code 1

* The terminal process terminated with exit code: 1.

* Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.

* Executing task: CMake: build

Workspace is /c:/projects/mcuxsdk/mcuxsdk/examples/demo_apps/hello_world

build task started....

"C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake.EXE" --build C:/projects/mcuxsdk/mcuxsdk/examples/demo_apps/hello_world/debug --target all --

ninja: error: loading 'build.ninja': The system cannot find the file specified.

build finished with error(s).