diff --git a/lua/nvim-treesitter/_meta/parsers.lua b/lua/nvim-treesitter/_meta/parsers.lua
index 54b613699..4850ff9c2 100644
--- a/lua/nvim-treesitter/_meta/parsers.lua
+++ b/lua/nvim-treesitter/_meta/parsers.lua
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ error('Cannot require a meta file')
 ---@field queries? string
 ---
 ---Envrionment variables for generating the parser
----@field env table<string, string|number>
+---@field env? table<string, string|number>
 
 ---@class ParserInfo
 ---
diff --git a/lua/nvim-treesitter/install.lua b/lua/nvim-treesitter/install.lua
index 82cb1cf6e..fa44d1932 100644
--- a/lua/nvim-treesitter/install.lua
+++ b/lua/nvim-treesitter/install.lua
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ end
 ---@param compile_location string
 ---@return string? err
 local function do_generate(logger, repo, compile_location)
-  local env = vim.tbl_extend('force', { TREE_SITTER_JS_RUNTIME = 'native' }, repo.env)
+  local env = vim.tbl_extend('force', { TREE_SITTER_JS_RUNTIME = 'native' }, repo.env or {})
   local from_json = true
   if repo.generate_from_json == false then
     from_json = false