404 of /stories.json and /metadata.json in Storybook Composition

[VictorDanilov]

Summary

Hi! I've initiated two Storybooks 9.1.12.

In first Storybook set

  refs: {
    react: {
      title: "Second Storybook",
      url: "http://localhost:6007",
      expanded: false,
    },
  },

Start first Storybook on 6006. Start second Storybook on 6007. Open http://localhost:6006/ and see two network errors

Is this OK? What should I do to avoid getting these errors? Why does Storybook try to fetch files that don’t exist?

And the second question. The documentation on Tags and Composition doesn't mention whether tag-based filtering will work correctly across all composed Storybooks. Could you please explain how to define a list of tags so they appear in the filter dropdown - even if they aren't used in the current Storybook but are present in other composed Storybooks - so that users can filter by those tags?

Additional information

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[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @VictorDanilov! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the storybook team.

Storybook tries to fetch /stories.json and /metadata.json from referenced Storybooks because these files provide story metadata needed for composition. If the referenced Storybook doesn't serve these files, you'll see 404 errors in the network tab—this is common if the referenced Storybook is running in a mode or version that doesn't generate them. These errors don't always break composition if index.json is present and correct, but they can indicate an incomplete or legacy setup. To avoid the errors, make sure the referenced Storybook is running and configured to serve stories.json and metadata.json, or update to a version that supports these endpoints if needed. More details on this logic are in the codebase here.

For tag-based filtering: the filter dropdown only shows tags present in the local Storybook's stories or those explicitly declared in your local TAGS_OPTIONS config. Tags used only in referenced Storybooks won't appear in the filter dropdown unless you add them to your own configuration. There isn't a built-in way to aggregate tags from all composed Storybooks—if you want users to filter by tags from other Storybooks, you need to enumerate those tags in your main.js/ts TAGS_OPTIONS. See the tag filtering implementation here.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[VictorDanilov]

#12336 (reply in thread)

Why can't we fix fetching if these files are legacy?