What causes "create LaunchAgents dir: %w" in chenhg5/cc-connect?

Check that ~/Library exists as a directory and is writable: ls -ld ~/Library ~/Library/LaunchAgents

create LaunchAgents dir: %w

Error message

create LaunchAgents dir: %w

What it means

launchdManager.Install creates the user's ~/Library/LaunchAgents directory before writing the plist. If os.MkdirAll on that directory fails, the error is wrapped with 'create LaunchAgents dir:' to identify the failing step. This typically indicates a filesystem-level problem (permissions, path is a file, disk full).

Source

Thrown at daemon/launchd.go:46

type launchdManager struct{}

// CheckLinger always returns true on macOS: launchd user agents persist
// independently of login sessions, so no "linger" warning is needed.
func CheckLinger() (enabled bool, user string) {
	return true, ""
}

func newPlatformManager() (Manager, error) {
	return &launchdManager{}, nil
}

func (*launchdManager) Platform() string { return "launchd" }

func (m *launchdManager) Install(cfg Config) error {
	plistPath := launchdPlistPath()

	if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(plistPath), 0755); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("create LaunchAgents dir: %w", err)
	}
	if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(cfg.LogFile), 0755); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("create log dir: %w", err)
	}

	// Unload existing service first (ignore errors) so we do not leave a stale
	// job behind when switching between GUI and headless sessions.
	bootoutLaunchdTargets()

	plist := buildPlist(cfg)
	// 0600: plist may contain captured secret values (config.toml ${ENV}
	// placeholders and any EnvDiscoverer extension output). User-only
	// LaunchAgents path; root can still read but that is the user's own
	// machine boundary. os.WriteFile only applies perm on create, so
	// Chmod afterwards is required to harden reinstalls of files that
	// pre-existed at 0644 from earlier cc-connect versions.
	if err := os.WriteFile(plistPath, []byte(plist), 0600); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("write plist: %w", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

Check that ~/Library exists as a directory and is writable: ls -ld ~/Library ~/Library/LaunchAgents
Remove/rename any non-directory named LaunchAgents at the plist path
Run the install as the actual user (not root) so the plist lands in the correct LaunchAgents directory
Inspect the wrapped %w cause in the error for the underlying OS reason

Example fix

// before
$ cc-connect daemon install  // HOME read-only
// after
$ chmod u+w ~/Library && cc-connect daemon install

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

dir := filepath.Dir(plistPath)
if st, err := os.Stat(dir); err != nil {
    // parent missing — verify you can create it
} else if !st.IsDir() {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s exists but is not a directory", dir)
}

Try / catch

if err := daemon.Install(cfg); err != nil {
    var pe *fs.PathError
    if errors.As(err, &pe) {
        log.Printf("launchd install failed at %s: %v", pe.Path, pe.Err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Run daemon install as the regular user with a writable HOME
Ensure ~/Library/LaunchAgents exists as a directory, not a file
Avoid MDM/security policies blocking writes under ~/Library

When it happens

Trigger: Calling daemon.Install (launchd) when filepath.Dir(launchdPlistPath()) cannot be created with mode 0755 — e.g. ~/Library exists as a regular file, or a component of the path denies write access.

Common situations: Running under an account with a broken/restricted HOME; MDM or security tools locking ~/Library; a stray file named LaunchAgents at the expected path; read-only home volume.

Understand the failure class

Background: mkdir permission denied (EACCES): failed to create directory errors explained — this error's family across 32 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b5dc4d61f0e18ed. Report an issue: GitHub.