Hmbown/CodeWhale · error · Error

Refusing to replace existing assets for

Error message

Refusing to replace existing assets for ${tag}: ${inventory}. A normal Release workflow rerun must never delete or overwrite public bytes.

What it means

Core safety refusal of assertReleaseAssetsAbsent(): the target release already has assets attached, so re-running asset upload would delete or overwrite published bytes. The inventory of existing asset names is embedded in the message. This enforces the project invariant that a normal Release workflow rerun is idempotent and never mutates public artifacts; a deliberate replacement requires an explicit, authorized procedure, not this script.

Solutions

1. Verify you are targeting the right tag — assets may legitimately exist for an already-published release
2. If re-publishing is truly required, delete the release (or its assets) through an explicit authorized process, then rerun
3. Check whether a previous partial upload left stray assets that need manual cleanup
4. Do not bypass this check in CI; it guards public artifact integrity

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at scripts/release/ensure-release-assets-absent.js:66 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@433685b202 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4d4a494dbe6e5591. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at scripts/release/ensure-release-assets-absent.js:66

  } catch (error) {
    throw new Error(`GitHub Release ${tag} returned invalid JSON: ${error.message}`);
  }
}

function assertReleaseAssetsAbsent(release, tag) {
  if (release === null) {
    return;
  }
  if (!release || !Array.isArray(release.assets)) {
    throw new Error(`GitHub Release ${tag} did not provide an asset inventory`);
  }
  if (release.assets.length === 0) {
    return;
  }

  const names = release.assets.map((asset) => asset && asset.name).filter(Boolean);
  const inventory = names.length > 0 ? names.join(", ") : `${release.assets.length} unnamed asset(s)`;
  throw new Error(
    `Refusing to replace existing assets for ${tag}: ${inventory}. ` +
      "A normal Release workflow rerun must never delete or overwrite public bytes.",
  );
}

function main() {
  if (process.argv.length !== 4) {
    throw new Error(usage());
  }
  const repo = process.argv[2];
  const tag = process.argv[3];
  const release = fetchRelease(repo, tag);
  assertReleaseAssetsAbsent(release, tag);
  console.log(
    release === null
      ? `No existing GitHub Release assets found for ${tag}.`
      : `Existing GitHub Release ${tag} has no assets; first upload may proceed.`,
  );

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