diff --git a/pkl-formatter/src/main/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/Builder.kt b/pkl-formatter/src/main/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/Builder.kt
index c89f80469..6ce74d172 100644
--- a/pkl-formatter/src/main/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/Builder.kt
+++ b/pkl-formatter/src/main/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/Builder.kt
@@ -1239,7 +1239,7 @@ internal class Builder(sourceText: String, private val grammarVersion: GrammarVe
     // skip semicolons
     val children = children.filter { !it.isSemicolon() }
     // short circuit
-    if (children.isEmpty()) return listOf(spaceOrLine())
+    if (children.isEmpty()) return emptyList()
     if (children.size == 1) return listOf(format(children[0]))
 
     val nodes = mutableListOf<FormatNode>()
diff --git a/pkl-formatter/src/test/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/FormatterTest.kt b/pkl-formatter/src/test/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/FormatterTest.kt
index cd91fc6a8..bbad59816 100644
--- a/pkl-formatter/src/test/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/FormatterTest.kt
+++ b/pkl-formatter/src/test/kotlin/org/pkl/formatter/FormatterTest.kt
@@ -113,4 +113,11 @@ class FormatterTest {
 
     walkDir(outputDir)
   }
+
+  @Test
+  fun `whitespace only`() {
+    for (src in listOf(";;;", "\n", "\n\n\n", "\t")) {
+      assertThat(format(src)).isEqualTo("\n")
+    }
+  }
 }