Empty project has problem adding drift packages with build runner

[goatt1167]

Hi, I just created a new empty flutter project and ran the installing

// installing
dart pub add drift drift_flutter path_provider dev:drift_dev dev:build_runner

Then I ran build_runner

dart run build_runner build

But got the error which prevents database.g.dart from being generated.

Building package executable... 
Built build_runner:build_runner.
0s compiling builders/aot                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                               
build_runner                                                                                                                                                   
E 'dart compile' does not support build hooks, use 'dart build' instead.                                                                                       
E Failed to compile build script. Check builder definitions and generated script .dart_tool/build/entrypoint/build.dart.  

I tried purging global cache, didn't work, same error.

But it worked when I temporarily commented out / uninstall both drift_flutter and path_provider package, ran the build_runner, then reinstall those 2 packages.

(However, after first time of using this workaround in a new project, it failed sometime after.)

I'm newbie, and don't know what's going out. Thanks for reading.

[simolus3]

Thanks for the report! I couldn't reproduce the issue in a fresh project unfortunately. Looking at where that error is thrown, it should only happen when compiling an app in bin/ (which build_runner doesn't do, its entrypoints are in .dart_tool/build).

What Flutter version are you on? Does the build work more reliably if you pass --force-jit (that is, dart run build_runner build --force-jit)?

[goatt1167]

--force-jit successfully produced the .g.part file. Thank you.

Mversion is

Flutter 3.38.7 • channel stable • https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
Framework • revision 3b62efc2a3 (4 months ago) • 2026-01-13 13:47:42 -0800
Engine • hash 6f3039bf7c3cb5306513c75092822d4d94716003 (revision 78fc3012e4) (3 months ago) • 2026-01-07 18:42:12.000Z
Tools • Dart 3.10.7 • DevTools 2.51.1

Should I upgrade it? I was worried about it'll break my older projects.

[simolus3]

Mversion is

Indeed, it looks like they've introduced the check to only warn for bin/ in Dart 3.11. So upgrading should fix the issue.

Should I upgrade it?

Generally, upgrading Flutter and Dart is worth it IMO. But --force-jit is a decent workaround, so if you're worried about breaking changes you also don't strictly have to upgrade.

I was worried about it'll break my older projects.

FWIW, tools like fvm allow managing multiple Flutter installations and to switch between them across projects. That might be worth checking out if you're not familiar with them.