dab start errors don't provide a lot of guidance.

[JerryNixon]

If you have, for example, an invalid action in actions the resulting error is:

Could not initialize the engine with the runtime config file: dab-config.json

For developers unfamiliar with DAB, this error gives little guidance to address the issue.

Should we consider better error messages to help developers resolve syntax errors?

[seantleonard]

Yes, this is needed and I want to take a look at that sooner rather than later. A big improvement would be to eliminate the swallowing of exceptions/messaging in PerformOnConfigChangeAsync(IApplicationBuilder app):

data-api-builder/src/Service/Startup.cs

Lines 627 to 631 in e810143

	catch (Exception ex)
	{
	_logger.LogError(ex, $"Unable to complete runtime initialization. Refer to exception for error details.");
	return false;
	}

[abhishekkumams]

I agree the above error is thrown. But i also see the error for invalid action above the initialization error.
I used the config with an entity containing action as "write".

I also see the error fail: Azure.DataApiBuilder.Service.Startup[0] Unable to complete runtime initialization. Refer to exception for error details. System.ArgumentException: Requested value 'write' was not found.

Can you share the complete log details? Just to make sure we are also getting the required errors.

But i agree and we will work on cleaning the logs.