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I'm trying to get a minimum PDK working from scratch. However, I'm unable to pass `PDK_ROOT` and `PDK` to the flow via the `config.json` file of my design. Next step I specified it directly in the environment, which appears to progress a little bit further. However, at this moment, it gives an error `Could not resolve the PDK 'mypdk'.` in `cli.py:157`. Am I doing something wrong here?

<@U07AA6U4QKE> As you discovered, I think the `PDK_ROOT` and `PDK` variables are set in the *nix environment and not the `config.json` file.

The `config.json` file has settings for individual pdks
```    "pdk::sky130*": {```
It probably has a default for sky130 somewhere, so this line may not be needed for the sky130 process. If you’re making your own pdk, you may need to add the settings for that.

There are also `config.json`/`config.tcl` files in the pdk that you may need to create for your process. In particular, the `$PDK_ROOT/$PDK/libs.tech/openlane/config.tcl` file.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I do have that config file in that specific location, yet it still gives me the error. Maybe because it is empty?
I've tried changing permission settings but to no avail.

I've been modifying the python code directly to get some  more debugging information by printing out variables and more, and I can see that it doesn't receive the correct `pdk_root` variable as the input, the `pdk` variable appears to be detected fine.

I've found out that, since I am not using Volare, that I have to use the `--manual-pdk` flag. Documentation found here: <https://openlane2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage/about_pdks.html>

So, maybe for those of the future:
I advise to pass the pdk-root and pdk along with the openlane command.

`openlane --pdk-root ~/pdks --pdk mypdk --manual-pdk &lt;filename&gt;.json`