Clarify error: "There was a problem parsing the Wrangler configuration file" when wrangler.toml is missing or malformed

[paruly06]

Problem:
When running Wrangler against this repository, the CLI/CI reported: "There was a problem parsing the Wrangler configuration file." The repository does not contain a wrangler.toml at the repository root, so Wrangler fails to find/parse the configuration.

Repository: paruly06/wrangler.toml
Relevant file (site entry): https://github.com/paruly06/wrangler.toml/blob/main/index.html

I tried the following wrangler.toml content (minimal example) locally / as suggested in the docs:

name = "callmate"
account_id = "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID"
compatibility_date = "2026-08-06"
workers_dev = true

[site]
bucket = "./"           # or "public" if you put files in public/
include = ["**/*"]
exclude = []

Steps to reproduce

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/paruly06/wrangler.toml
2. Ensure no wrangler.toml exists at the repo root (or place the minimal example above at wrangler.toml).
3. Run the Wrangler command used in CI or locally (e.g. wrangler publish or wrangler dev).

Observed behavior

• Wrangler reports: "There was a problem parsing the Wrangler configuration file." (no further details)
• In this repo the file is missing, which may be the direct cause of the error message, but the message is ambiguous and does not clearly indicate whether the file is missing vs malformed.

Expected behavior

• A clearer error when the configuration file is missing (e.g. "wrangler.toml not found") or a descriptive TOML parse error if the file exists but is malformed.

Additional details

• Index / site entry (for context): https://github.com/paruly06/wrangler.toml/blob/main/index.html
• I can provide full CI logs or the exact Wrangler CLI output if helpful.

Request

• Could the Wrangler project clarify whether this error message is intended for both the missing-file and malformed-file cases, and consider providing a more specific message ("missing wrangler.toml" vs "TOML parse error:
  Details

  ") to help debugging?

If it helps, I'm happy to paste full CLI output and the exact command used (wrangler version, node/os, CI job logs) — please let me know what additional data you need.