cypress-io/cypress · critical · Error

Platform: "${platform}" is not supported.

Error message

Platform: "${platform}" is not supported.

What it means

Raised by getPlatformExecutable() when os.platform() returns a value other than 'darwin', 'linux', or 'win32'. The Cypress desktop binary only ships executable layouts for those three platforms, so the function cannot compute the path to the binary entry point (e.g. Contents/MacOS/Cypress, Cypress, Cypress.exe). The TODO comment notes this is not yet using Cypress's standard error format.

Source

Thrown at cli/lib/tasks/state.ts:20

import os from 'os'
import path from 'path'
import untildify from 'untildify'
import Debug from 'debug'
import { cwd } from 'process'
import fs from 'fs-extra'
import util from '../util'

const debug = Debug('cypress:cli')

const getPlatformExecutable = (): string => {
  const platform = os.platform()

  switch (platform) {
    case 'darwin': return 'Contents/MacOS/Cypress'
    case 'linux': return 'Cypress'
    case 'win32': return 'Cypress.exe'
      // TODO handle this error using our standard
    default: throw new Error(`Platform: "${platform}" is not supported.`)
  }
}

const getPlatFormBinaryFolder = (): string => {
  const platform = os.platform()

  switch (platform) {
    case 'darwin': return 'Cypress.app'
    case 'linux': return 'Cypress'
    case 'win32': return 'Cypress'
      // TODO handle this error using our standard
    default: throw new Error(`Platform: "${platform}" is not supported.`)
  }
}

const getBinaryPkgPath = (binaryDir: string): string => {
  const platform = os.platform()

View on GitHub (pinned to 0d85fdc912)

Solutions

1. Run Cypress on a supported OS: macOS, Linux, or Windows. For other Unix systems, use the Linux build inside a compatible emulation/container if licensing allows.
2. Confirm the platform with `node -e "console.log(require('os').platform())"` and ensure it reports darwin, linux, or win32.
3. If you hit this inside CI, switch the runner image to a supported OS.

Example fix

# before: running on FreeBSD (os.platform() === 'freebsd')
# after: run the job on a linux runner image

import os from 'os'

const platform = os.platform()
const supported = new Set(['darwin', 'linux', 'win32'])
if (!supported.has(platform)) {
  throw new Error(`Unsupported platform ${platform}; Cypress runs on macOS, Linux, or Windows.`)
}

function isSupportedPlatform(p: string): p is 'darwin' | 'linux' | 'win32' {
  return p === 'darwin' || p === 'linux' || p === 'win32'
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running any Cypress command that needs the binary path on a Node build whose process.platform is something like 'aix', 'sunos', 'freebsd', or 'openbsd'. Also triggered by test environments that mock os.platform() to an unsupported value.

Common situations: Attempting to run Cypress on an unsupported OS (e.g. FreeBSD, SmartOS); a misconfigured container/VM reporting a nonstandard platform; running under a Node runtime that reports a platform string Cypress does not recognize.

Related errors

• Cannot find version for component "${componentName}" under p

AI-assisted analysis of cypress-io/cypress@0d85fdc912 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e1ee1b48d7f8b626. Report an issue: GitHub.