What causes "Downloaded YAML is empty for '${slug}'" in coleam00/Archon?

Check the file at the pinned SHA: `gh api repos/ / /contents/ ?ref= ` — is it empty?

Downloaded YAML is empty for '${slug}'

Error message

Downloaded YAML is empty for '${slug}'

What it means

After downloading the workflow YAML for an install, the command verifies the content is not blank before writing it. An empty (whitespace-only) body from raw.githubusercontent.com would otherwise produce a useless zero-content workflow file, so it fails loudly with the slug named.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/commands/workflow.ts:5191

  }

  console.log(`Run with: archon workflow run ${slug} "<message>"`);
}

async function installSingleFile(
  entry: MarketplaceEntryJson,
  slug: string,
  archonDir: string,
  force: boolean | undefined,
  existsSync: (p: string) => boolean,
  mkdirSync: (p: string, opts: { recursive: boolean }) => void,
  writeFileSync: (p: string, data: string) => void
): Promise<void> {
  const { owner, repo, path } = parseGitHubUrl(entry.sourceUrl);
  const content = await downloadRawFile(owner, repo, path, entry.sha);

  if (!content.trim()) {
    throw new Error(`Downloaded YAML is empty for '${slug}'`);
  }

  const workflowsDir = join(archonDir, 'workflows');
  const destPath = join(workflowsDir, `${slug}.yaml`);

  if (existsSync(destPath) && !force) {
    throw new Error(`Workflow '${slug}' already exists at ${destPath}.\nUse --force to overwrite.`);
  }

  mkdirSync(workflowsDir, { recursive: true });
  writeFileSync(destPath, content);
  console.log(`Installed '${entry.name}' to ${destPath}`);
}

async function installDirectory(
  entry: MarketplaceEntryJson,
  slug: string,
  archonDir: string,

View on GitHub (pinned to 0773b97458)

Solutions

Check the file at the pinned SHA: `gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/contents/<path>?ref=<sha>` — is it empty?
Fix the marketplace entry's sha/path to point at the real non-empty workflow file
Re-push the workflow content upstream and update the entry's SHA
Retry in case a transient fetch glitch returned an empty body

Example fix

// before
if (!content.trim()) throw new Error(`Downloaded YAML is empty for '${slug}'`);
// after
const yaml = await parseYaml(content); // parse instead of just trimming
if (!content.trim() || typeof yaml !== 'object') {
  throw new Error(`Downloaded YAML is empty or unparseable for '${slug}' (sha ${entry.sha})`);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const head = await fetch(`https://api.github.com/repos/${owner}/${repo}/contents/${path}?ref=${sha}`);
const meta = await head.json();
if (meta.size === 0) throw new Error(`Workflow file ${path}@${sha} is empty upstream`);

Type guard

function isNonEmptyYaml(content: string): boolean {
  return content.trim().length > 0;
}

Try / catch

try {
  await workflowInstallCommand(slug);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes('Downloaded YAML is empty')) {
    // fix marketplace sha/path or re-push content upstream
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Never publish empty placeholder workflow files in marketplace repos
Verify pinned SHAs contain real content before registering entries
Keep marketplace paths pointed at maintained files, not stale shas
Retry once on odd empty responses to rule out transient fetch glitches

When it happens

Trigger: `installSingleWorkflowFile` downloads via `downloadRawFile` and `content.trim()` is empty — e.g. the file at the pinned SHA is empty, or the fetch silently returned an empty body (rare transport/edge cases).

Common situations: Repo contains an intentionally empty placeholder workflow; the marketplace entry points at an empty file (wrong path resolved); an interrupted write upstream left an empty file at that SHA; odd CDN edge serving an empty body.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of coleam00/Archon@0773b97458 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ba2e54c5c3ab91ae. Report an issue: GitHub.