diff --git a/releasenotes.md b/releasenotes.md
index 7fc411ddd..5fe7836e3 100644
--- a/releasenotes.md
+++ b/releasenotes.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 - Deprecated inline generic types.
 - Deprecated tuple / triple types.
 - Converting a slice to a vector/array would copy too little data.
+- Crash when reading an empty 'manifest.json'.
 
 ### Stdlib changes
 *None yet*
diff --git a/src/build/libraries.c b/src/build/libraries.c
index 26a6af912..aca739d98 100644
--- a/src/build/libraries.c
+++ b/src/build/libraries.c
@@ -172,6 +172,10 @@ INLINE JSONObject* read_manifest(const char *lib, const char *manifest_data)
 	{
 		error_exit("Error on line %d reading '%s':'%s'", parser.line, lib, parser.error_message);
 	}
+	if (!json)
+	{
+		error_exit("Empty 'manifest.json' for library '%s'.", lib);
+	}
 	return json;
 }