-update- I tried using "npm run build" instead and that worked OK - a workaround, but a pain having to remember running it each time I make a change during testing/development.
I have used the "NPX @wordpress/create-block@latest" command and "NPM start" to scaffold a number of demo blocks as part of learning how to create custom blocks.
A couple of weeks ago a problem came up - the create part worked fine, but now when I then run the NPM start I get an error message that the block-manifest.php file is missing. "Warning: require(C:\Users\steev\Local Sites\new-bare-site\app\public\wp-content\plugins\todo-list/build/blocks-manifest.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Users\steev\Local Sites\new-bare-site\app\public\wp-content\plugins\todo-list\todo-list.php on line 34"
The file is there before the NPM command is run. The full error page is attached. NPM runs successfully with no error messages.
I am running on Windows 10, with the localwp.com Wordpress environment. I have re-installed Localwp, Node.JS (and Chocolatey as well) and created a clean Wordpress site on Localwp.
Any help appreciated (as I have run out of ideas and am not expert in this and it is driving me mad) Screen capture of test site error message
I found an interesting article: As I was guessing, it's a bug around Webpack... I've found a discussion about what seems to be a bug, look at here there are some solutions:
Discussion and solutions to the Bug about blocks-manifest.php
and also:
An article from march 2025 explaining the new method for declaring blocks
