ative to the current dir do incdir = include_directories(dirname) After this incdir will contain both the current source dir as well as the corresponding build dir. It can then be used in any subdirectory and Meson will take care of all the busywork to make paths work. Dirname can even be '.' to mark the current directory. Though you should remember that the current source and build directories are always put in the include directories by default so you only need to do include_directories('.') if you intend to use the result in a different subdirectory. Note that this error message can also be triggered by external dependencies being installed within your source tree - it's not recommended to do this. z&include_directories sandbox violation!rV