OPF-099 is reported as error by default. The EPUB breaks a rule of the specification and is invalid. Stores and Send to Kindle may reject it, and EPUBCheck exits with status 1.

EPUBCheck · Package document (OPF)

EPUBCheck OPF-099: manifest lists the OPF

Updated: Nov 4, 2026

EPUBCheck OPF-099 is an error message: “The manifest must not list the package document.” The manifest lists the package document itself, which is not allowed. The package document is found through META-INF/container.xml and describes the publication; it is not a resource of it.

The official message

The manifest must not list the package document.

Default severity: Error. The EPUB breaks a rule of the specification and is invalid. Stores and Send to Kindle may reject it, and EPUBCheck exits with status 1.
EPUBCheck version: 5.4.0

Typical causes

Tools that add every file in the folder to the manifest, the .opf included.
A manifest generated by a script that walks the whole book folder.
An item added by hand during troubleshooting.

How to fix it

Find the manifest item whose href points to the .opf file.
Delete that item.
Check that nothing else (spine, fallbacks) refers to its id.

When it's not this

If another file is declared twice, that is OPF-074.

Terms used here

Other OPF messages

OPF-098 The "href" attribute must reference resources, not elements in the package document, but found URL "…".
OPF-100 The "…" property only applies to pre-paginated content.
OPF-097 Resource "…" is listed in the manifest, but no reference to it was found in content documents.
OPF-096 Non-linear content must be reachable, but found no hyperlink to "…".
OPF-096b No hyperlink was found to non-linear document "…", please check that it can be reached from scripted content.
OPF-095 The "media-type" attribute of "voicing" links must be an audio MIME type, but found "…".

Sources

EPUB 3.3, §5.6.1 The manifest element · read Nov 4, 2026

Message text and severity from EPUBCheck 5.4.0 (W3C, BSD-3-Clause). Explanation by EpubCC.