Buf cannot resolve dependencies when we use workspaces

[shuheiktgw]

Hi, team 👋 Thank you so much for your kind support. We just recently started using buf, but one problem we face is if we use a workspace that depends on another workspace, buf seems to fail to resolve the dependencies. I've created a repository to reproduce the problem.

• https://github.com/shuheiktgw/buf-test

If you run buf generate at the root, it seems buf fails to resolve the dependency to google/rpc/code.proto. Would you guide us on what is wrong with our configuration? I found a similar issue, #687, but it just stopped using a workspace to avoid the issue.

buf generate 
proto_deps/shuheiktgw/test1/v1/message.proto:6:8:google/rpc/code.proto: does not exist

I'm currently using buf 1.27.1.

buf --version
1.27.1

Thanks, in advance!

[shuheiktgw]

OK, I think I've finally figured out what was wrong with the configuration (but let me leave it open to confirm if my understanding is correct). What I needed to do was

1. Create a buf.build/shuheiktgw/test1 repository, and push the latest changes to create a commit
2. Declear the following dependencies in proto/buf.yaml and run buf mod update to create buf.lock

+deps:
+  - buf.build/shuheiktgw/test1

Then buf generate at the root works just fine. I thought workspaces work fine without creating actual repositories, but IIUC, buf needs them to create a correct buf.lock and resolve dependencies.

[timostamm]

Hey @shuheiktgw, I can confirm that your solution is correct. We're looking to improve the behavior in the future.