Skip to content

Buf Issues

Troubleshooting guide for Protocol Buffers tooling issues with Buf.

Installation & Setup

buf: command not found

exec: "buf": executable file not found in $PATH

Fix: Install Buf via APX or manually:

# Preferred — uses pinned version from apx.lock
apx fetch

# Or install globally
brew install bufbuild/buf/buf

# Verify
buf --version

Wrong Buf version

Warning: buf version 1.28.0 does not match pinned version 1.47.2

Fix: APX pins tool versions in apx.lock. Use apx fetch to download the correct version, which is cached in .apx-tools/.

Lint Failures

PACKAGE_VERSION_SUFFIX

proto/payments/ledger/v1/ledger.proto:3:1:
  Package name "payments.ledger" should have a version suffix.

Fix: Include the version in the proto package: 

package payments.ledger.v1;  // ✔
// not:
package payments.ledger;     // ✘

FIELD_LOWER_SNAKE_CASE

Field name "userName" should be lower_snake_case.

Fix: Use snake_case for field names: 

string user_name = 1;  // ✔
// not:
string userName = 1;   // ✘

SERVICE_SUFFIX

Service name "Ledger" should have suffix "Service".

Fix: 

service LedgerService { ... }  // ✔

RPC_REQUEST_RESPONSE_UNIQUE

RPC "GetUser" request type "GetUserRequest" is also used by RPC "ListUsers".

Fix: Each RPC should have unique request and response types.

Disabling specific lint rules

Configure exceptions in buf.yaml:

version: v2
lint:
  use:
    - DEFAULT
  except:
    - FIELD_LOWER_SNAKE_CASE    # if you have legacy fields

Note: APX's apx policy check may enforce required lint rules that override buf.yaml exceptions.

Breaking Change Failures

FIELD_NO_DELETE

Previously present field "2" with name "email" on message "User" was deleted.

Fix: Don't remove fields — mark them as reserved instead: 

message User {
  string name = 1;
  reserved 2;              // was: string email = 2;
  reserved "email";
  string email_address = 3;  // new field with new number
}

FIELD_SAME_TYPE

Field "1" with name "id" on message "User" changed type from "string" to "int64".

Fix: Field types cannot change. Add a new field with the new type and deprecate the old one.

ENUM_VALUE_NO_DELETE

Previously present enum value "2" with name "STATUS_ACTIVE" was deleted.

Fix: Reserve deleted enum values: 

enum Status {
  STATUS_UNSPECIFIED = 0;
  reserved 2;  // was STATUS_ACTIVE
  STATUS_ENABLED = 3;
}

False positive breaking changes

If apx breaking reports changes that aren't actually breaking:

# Check the baseline reference
apx breaking --against origin/main --verbose

# Verify you're comparing against the right baseline
git log --oneline origin/main..HEAD

Common causes of false positives: - Comparing against the wrong baseline branch - buf.yaml version change (v1 vs v2) causes structural differences - Reordering fields (field numbers didn't change, but file diff triggers detection)

go_package Warnings

go_package does not match canonical path

Warning: go_package "github.com/myorg/myrepo/gen/proto/payments/ledger/v1"
  does not match canonical path "github.com/acme-corp/apis/proto/payments/ledger/v1"

Cause: The go_package option in your .proto files doesn't match the import path that consumers will use after publishing to the canonical repo.

Fix: Update the go_package option: 

option go_package = "github.com/acme-corp/apis/proto/payments/ledger/v1";

The canonical path is derived from: - canonical_repo in apx.yaml (or --canonical-repo flag) - The API ID path

Check what APX expects: 

apx inspect identity proto/payments/ledger/v1
apx explain go-path proto/payments/ledger/v1

buf.yaml Configuration

v1 vs v2 format

Buf v1 and v2 have different buf.yaml schemas. APX works with both but prefers v2:

# v2 (recommended)
version: v2
lint:
  use:
    - DEFAULT
breaking:
  use:
    - FILE

# v1 (legacy)
version: v1
lint:
  use:
    - DEFAULT
breaking:
  use:
    - FILE

Missing buf.yaml

If no buf.yaml exists, Buf uses defaults. APX recommends creating one for consistent behavior:

buf config init

Dependencies in buf.yaml

If your protos import well-known types or other Buf modules:

version: v2
deps:
  - buf.build/googleapis/googleapis
  - buf.build/grpc/grpc

Then run: 

buf dep update

Performance

Slow lint/breaking checks

Cause: Buf scans the entire proto tree by default.

Fix: Scope checks to a specific path: 

apx lint proto/payments/ledger/v1/
apx breaking proto/payments/ledger/v1/ --against HEAD^

Debugging

# Verbose output from APX (shows buf invocations)
apx lint --verbose

# Run buf directly for deeper debugging
buf lint proto/payments/ledger/v1/ --error-format=json
buf breaking proto/payments/ledger/v1/ --against .git#branch=main

# Check buf configuration
buf config ls-lint-rules
buf config ls-breaking-rules

See Also