Error: Error reading rules file firestore.rules - firebase

Question

I am trying to deploy my website while using Firebase as a host and deleted the firestore.rules file as I didn't think that I required the use of the Cloud Firestore database (I'm just deploying a placeholder for now).
I have followed all the steps as mentioned in their documentation.
When I run firebase deploy I get the error:
Error: Error reading rules file firestore.rules
I don't know how to move past this. Can someone please help me with a solution to this? Thank you!

Answer 1

How to retrieve your existing Cloud Firestore rules
Go to your Firebase Console and click on Cloud Firestore from the Build category in the sidebar.
You can see a Rules tab on the top of the screen (below the Cloud Firestore heading). Open the Rules tab. Now you can see the rules which are currently active and all the other ones you have deployed so far (via CLI or Firebase Console).
You can copy your rules from here and paste it in a file called firestore.rules in your project folder.
How to fix the error "Error: Error reading rules file firestore.rules"
This error will most likely appear if you have set a wrong path for the firestore.rules in your firebase.json file (e.g. moved the file to a subfolder) or you don't have a firestore.rules file at all but reference it in the firebase.json.
Wrong path set in firebase.json
Open your firebase.json file from your Firebase project folder. You can find some paths and filenames in this file.
Look for the firestore category. It should look similar to this:
"firestore": {
"rules": "firestore.rules",
"indexes": "firestore.indexes.json"
},
You may want to update your paths or filenames to match where your firestore.rules are located.
If you can't find any paths for firestore you can add them to your firebase.json file. It may now look like this (note: I've moved my firestore files and changed the path of the firestore.rules and firestore.indexes.json):
{
"firestore": {
"rules": "firestore/firestore.rules",
"indexes": "firestore/firestore.indexes.json"
},
"hosting": {
"public": "public",
"ignore": [
"firebase.json",
"**/.*",
"**/node_modules/**"
]
},
"functions": {
"predeploy": [
"npm --prefix \"$RESOURCE_DIR\" run lint",
"npm --prefix \"$RESOURCE_DIR\" run build"
],
"source": "functions"
}
}
If you don't want to deploy any Firestore rules from your project folder
If you want to deploy your Firestore rules just over the Firebase Console you can delete the firestore.rules and firestore.indexes.json files from your project folder and delete the firestore part from your firebase.json. Although I recommend to keep them in your project folder so you can keep track of them in your version control system.
Keep in mind that you may also just delete the reference in the firebase.json file that the rules aren't deployed via the CLI and keep the firestore.rules and firestore.indexes.json files.
Delete this if you don't want to deploy your Firestore rules via the CLI:
"firestore": {
"rules": "firestore.rules",
"indexes": "firestore.indexes.json"
},

Answer 2

if you're following this tutorial
https://firebase.google.com/codelabs/firebase-web#14 then the issue here is when you try to deploy running this command firebase deploy --except functions then this script will try to look for files with firestore.rules and storage.rules in the root directory and you'll get the following Error: Error reading rules file storage.rules this file because you told to do so in.
So to deploy it successfully with firebase deploy --except functions then you have to create this files in root directory and then will work.
firebase.json file
{
"firestore": {
"rules": "firestore.rules",
"indexes": "firestore.indexes.json"
},
"storage": {
"rules": "storage.rules"
},
"hosting": {
"public": "./public",
"headers": [
{
"source": "**/*.#(js|html)",
"headers": [
{
"key": "Cache-Control",
"value": "max-age=0"
}
]
}
]
}
}
firestore.rules
rules_version = '2';
service cloud.firestore {
match /databases/{database}/documents {
match /messages/{messageId} {
allow read;
allow create, update: if request.auth != null
&& request.resource.data.name == request.auth.token.name
&& (request.resource.data.text is string
&& request.resource.data.text.size() <= 300
|| request.resource.data.imageUrl is string
&& request.resource.data.imageUrl.matches('https?://.*'));
allow delete: if false;
}
match /fcmTokens/{token} {
allow read: if false;
allow write;
}
}
}
storage.rules
// Returns true if the uploaded file is an image and its size is below the given number of MB.
function isImageBelowMaxSize(maxSizeMB) {
return request.resource.size < maxSizeMB * 1024 * 1024
&& request.resource.contentType.matches('image/.*');
}
service firebase.storage {
match /b/{bucket}/o {
match /{userId}/{messageId}/{fileName} {
allow write: if request.auth != null && request.auth.uid == userId && isImageBelowMaxSize(5);
allow read;
}
}
}
So with this 2 file firestore.rules and storage.rules added to root directory the deploy command should work.

Answer 3

Add the firestore.rules attribute pointing to firestore.rules
this what the dics at firebase website says:
then change:
{
// Add this!
"firestore": {
"rules": "firestore.rules"
},
to:
{
// Add this!
"firestore": {
"firestore.rules": "firestore.rules"
},
this worked for me

Answer 4

Follow these steps:
Go to firebase.json.
Add this code :
{
"hosting": {
"public": "./public",
"headers": [{
"source" : "**/*.#(js|html)",
"headers" : [ {
"key" : "Cache-Control",
"value" : "max-age=0"
} ]
}]
}
}
Run firebase deploy --except functions.
** PS **: I assume you already changed the rules in the Firebase dashboard.

Answer 5

delete :"rules": "firestore.rules", from firebase.json file