Why do I get "Manifest functionality disabled"?

[jandppw]

Support plan

• which support plan is this issue covered by? (e.g. Community, Core, Plus, or Enterprise): Community
• is this issue currently blocking your project? (yes/no): no
• is this issue affecting a production system? (yes/no): no

Context

• node version: v12.10.0
• module version: 16.1.7
• environment (e.g. node, browser, native): browser
• used with (e.g. hapi application, another framework, standalone, ...): standalone (Karma Jasmine test)
• any other relevant information:

How can we help?

Calling .describe() on a schema, I get

Error: Manifest functionality disabled

What exactly is the meaning of this message?

base.js

describe() {
  Assert(typeof Manifest.describe === 'function', 'Manifest functionality disabled');
  return Manifest.describe(this);
}

seems to imply that there is no describe function in this case.

I get the impression this is because I am working in a browser?

If so, can you explain why describe wouldn't work / is not supported in a browser?

[hueniverse]

In order to keep the browser version as small as possible, we had to remove some features. The describe/build features are not really commonly used on in the browser and are not part of the default build. If you want to enable them, you just need to build your own distribution which isn't hard.

In general, the default browser build is never going to give everything to everyone.