Understanding and Resolving the BCP001 Error in Bicep

Bicep, a domain-specific language (DSL) for deploying Azure resources, simplifies the process of writing infrastructure as code. However, like any programming language, it has its own set of rules and syntax that must be followed. One common error that developers encounter is the BCP001 error, which occurs when Bicep encounters an unrecognized token.

The BCP001 Error Explained

The BCP001 error message typically reads: The following token is not recognized: "" most of the times followed by the Error BCP007: This declaration type is not recognized. Specify a metadata, parameter, variable, resource, or output declaration. error. The BCP001 error indicates that Bicep has encountered a token or character sequence it doesn’t understand. One common cause of this error, and the reason behind the error in my case, is forgetting to use the @ symbol at the beginning of the file when defining metadata for parameters or variables.

Consider the following Bicep code snippet

description('This is a storage account')
param storageAccountName string

In this example, the description metadata is missing the @ symbol. This omission leads to the BCP001 error because Bicep does not recognize description as a valid token without the @ symbol.

Troubleshooting Steps

In general, since the error can be of a reason other than a missing @ you want to do the following steps when troubleshooting the BCP001 error:

• Identify the Error: Look for the BCP001 error message in your code editor or deployment logs. Find out the line where the error occurs.
• Validate Syntax: Use a code editor with Bicep support, such as Visual Studio Code with the Bicep extension, to highlight syntax errors and provide suggestions.
• Correct and redeploy your Bicep file to Azure :)