diff --git a/ci/release/changelogs/next.md b/ci/release/changelogs/next.md
index f3c0d2a774..2d39449f07 100644
--- a/ci/release/changelogs/next.md
+++ b/ci/release/changelogs/next.md
@@ -3,3 +3,5 @@
 #### Improvements 🧹
 
 #### Bugfixes ⛑️
+
+- Fixes edge case of bad import syntax crashing using d2 as a library [1829](https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/pull/1829)
diff --git a/d2ir/import.go b/d2ir/import.go
index c8ef907608..b933298dd2 100644
--- a/d2ir/import.go
+++ b/d2ir/import.go
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ import (
 
 func (c *compiler) pushImportStack(imp *d2ast.Import) (string, bool) {
 	impPath := imp.PathWithPre()
-	if impPath == "" && imp.Range.Path != "" {
+	if impPath == "" && imp.Range != (d2ast.Range{}) {
 		c.errorf(imp, "imports must specify a path to import")
 		return "", false
 	}