Adding non-existent permissions to a role is not allowed

I'm not sure this circular dependency can be fixed. For now I added this hook to my install profile as a workaround:

/**
 * Implements hook_ENTITY_TYPE_insert().
 *
 * This is necessary because of a circular dependency between the 'editor' role and the 'assign editor role' permission.
 * @see https://www.drupal.org/project/role_delegation/issues/3354012
 */
function my_install_profile_user_role_insert(RoleInterface $role): void
{
    if ($role->id() === 'editor') {
        $role->grantPermission('assign editor role');
        $role->save();
    }
}

This seems as a core bug to me.
I created 🐛 Installation of Drupal fails when having dynamic permissions based on a config entity added during installation Needs work . Let's see what other people think.

One work-around would be enabled by ✨ Create hook_role_delegation_assignable_roles_alter() Needs review .

I encountered this problem when running functional tests. As part of test setup, it would import the config which include assigning permissions used by role_delegation. Since these permissions do not yet exist, it caused an error.

I was able to work around it by adding those permissions to a .permissions.yml file in a custom module. Now the permissions exist; no error is raised.