alibaba/open-code-review · error

get working directory: %w

Error message

get working directory: %w

What it means

resolveWorkingDir wraps os.Getwd() failure with this message when the user passed no --dir/input path and the process working directory cannot be determined. This is nearly impossible in normal use and typically indicates the current directory was deleted while the process ran, or a permission problem on the cwd. The wrapped os error names the root cause.

Source

Thrown at cmd/opencodereview/shared.go:137

	return &commonContext{
		Template:   tpl,
		RepoDir:    repoDir,
		Resolver:   resolver,
		FileFilter: fileFilter,
		GitRunner:  gitRunner,
		IsGitRepo:  isGit,
	}, nil
}

// resolveWorkingDir returns (absPath, isGitRepo, err). When requireGit is
// true, returns an error if the directory is not a git repo. When false,
// returns IsGitRepo=false instead of erroring (scan path uses this).
func resolveWorkingDir(input string, requireGit bool) (string, bool, error) {
	if input == "" {
		wd, err := os.Getwd()
		if err != nil {
			return "", false, fmt.Errorf("get working directory: %w", err)
		}
		input = wd
	}
	absPath, err := filepath.Abs(input)
	if err != nil {
		return "", false, fmt.Errorf("resolve absolute path: %w", err)
	}
	if _, statErr := os.Stat(absPath); statErr != nil {
		return "", false, fmt.Errorf("stat %s: %w", absPath, statErr)
	}
	out, err := runGitCmd(absPath, "rev-parse", "--git-dir")
	isGit := err == nil && len(out) > 0
	if !isGit && requireGit {
		return "", false, fmt.Errorf("%s is not a git repository", absPath)
	}
	// #287: git reports diff and `git show HEAD:<path>` paths relative to the
	// repository root, not the current directory. When `ocr review` runs from a
	// subdirectory of a monorepo, anchor RepoDir at the git top-level so those

View on GitHub (pinned to 5cf97d0d15)

Solutions

1. cd into an existing directory (or re-open the shell) before running ocr
2. Pass an explicit existing directory via the --dir/input flag instead of relying on the cwd
3. Check filesystem/mount health if the cwd genuinely still exists (dmesg, mount status)

Example fix

// before
cd /tmp/build && rm -rf /tmp/build && ocr review
// after
cd /tmp/build && rm -rf /tmp/build && cd /tmp && ocr review --dir /tmp/myrepo

wd, err := os.Getwd()
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("current directory unusable: %w", err)
}
// proceed with explicit --dir

if err != nil {
	var pe *fs.PathError
	if errors.As(err, &pe) && errors.Is(pe.Err, syscall.ENOENT) {
		// cwd was deleted; chdir to a safe dir and retry
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `ocr review` (or scan/session paths via resolveRepoDir, resolveWorkingDirForSession, loadCommonContext) with an empty directory argument while os.Getwd() fails — e.g. the shell's cwd was removed (rm -rf of the directory you are standing in) or cwd lacks read/execute permission.

Common situations: Running ocr from a terminal whose current directory was deleted by another process; container or CI workspaces cleaned up mid-run; NFS/automount directories that vanished.

Related errors

• read background file %q: %w
• background file %q is a directory, not a file
• list sessions: %w
• resolve absolute path: %w
• "%q %s" (+ positional signature, valid values, usage line, e

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/open-code-review@5cf97d0d15 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/18d3c8eb1d1915b9. Report an issue: GitHub.