Use ejs-locals partials with data JSON - TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON

I'm trying to do something rather simple -at least it should be. That was without counting that I work with EJS...

I'm completely lost. The debug messages are bullshit, the code compiles, I change it, it doesn't, I rollback, it doesn't. I restart it does, I refresh, it doesn't. What I am suppose to say?

Debug messages are obviously wrong. Once telling me the partial cannot be found, but if I fix something in the partial (or refresh, or restart, or pray) it finds it.

So, let's talk about what I'm trying to do.

I have a JSON object in a file, the file is loaded by the controller and sent to the view.

[
    {
        "_href": "/",
        "_controller": "home",
        "_action": "index",
        "_icon": "home",
        "_text": "Home",
        "_classes": ""
    },
    [
        {
            "_href": "/",
            "_controller": "sentences",
            "_action": "index",
            "_icon": "list",
            "_text": "Sentences",
            "_classes": ""
        },
        {
            "_href": "/",
            "_controller": "sentences",
            "_action": "index",
            "_icon": "plus",
            "_text": "Sentences",
            "_classes": ""
        }
    ]
]

The aim is to generate a menu dynamically.

Now, in my view: leftNavigation.ejs

    <% _.each(leftNavigation, function(entry){%>
        <%- partial('../../../assets/linker/templates/leftNavigationLink', entry)%>
    <%})%>

This worked, then it didn't, then it did.

The partial code: leftNavigationLink.ejs

<li>
    <a href="<%= _href%>" class="part <%= _classes%> <%= __view.activePage(_controller, _action, controller, action)%>">
        <i class="fa fa-<%= _icon%>"></i>
        <span><%= _text%></span>
    </a>
</li>

This should be easy, right? Simply loop on my array and render partials

I also tried this:

<%- partial('../../../assets/linker/templates/leftNavigationLink', leftNavigation[0])%>

It works, sometimes. Sometimes when I restart the server then the path is wrong and it cannot find the view. I don't get why or how the path could change between two server instance...

I'm sure now that sometimes the path starting by ../../../ works and sometimes doesn't. Sometimes the right path is ../../. I don't have any clue why, the files location don't change, I just change the source code.

I'm gonna try to put all files in the same folder or I'm gonna rest my brain. If anyone have a working example of use of partials with ejs/ejs-locals and data/loop, it would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know how such bad programming tools can become that famous, I'm maybe tough but I would have done that in 5 min in PHP/Ruby. A real debugger that shows the exact error would help a lot (instead of a random file/line like what I get now)

Edit: Well, this is likely a ejs-locals issue, I've posted on the Git repo but it's not maintained anymore. (<3)

If anyone knows how I could override the partial function, I could maybe force to look from a specific directory of my application and avoid killing myself. Maybe you'll have a better idea/fix.