denoland/deno · error · Error

${prefix}Linter plugin name must be a string

Error message

${prefix}Linter plugin name must be a string

What it means

During bundle-identifier rewriting on macOS, each helper application's Info.plist is read to derive a new `CFBundleIdentifier` from the existing value's `helper` suffix. This error means a helper plist is missing that key entirely (or holds a non-string value), so no new id can be computed.

Source

Thrown at cli/js/40_lint.js:486

  return plugins.map((plugin, i) => installPlugin(plugin, specifiers?.[i]));
}

/**
 * @param {Deno.lint.Plugin} plugin
 * @param {string} [specifier] The specifier the plugin was loaded from, if any.
 */
function installPlugin(plugin, specifier) {
  // When the plugin was loaded from a specifier (i.e. `lint.plugins` in the
  // config), prefix validation errors with it so the user knows which plugin
  // is misbehaving instead of getting an anonymous error.
  const prefix = typeof specifier === "string"
    ? `Failed to load lint plugin '${specifier}': `
    : "";
  if (typeof plugin !== "object") {
    throw new Error(`${prefix}Linter plugin must be an object`);
  }
  if (typeof plugin.name !== "string") {
    throw new Error(`${prefix}Linter plugin name must be a string`);
  }
  if (!/^[a-z-]+$/.test(plugin.name)) {
    throw new Error(
      `${prefix}Linter plugin name must only contain lowercase letters (a-z) or hyphens (-).`,
    );
  }
  if (plugin.name.startsWith("-") || plugin.name.endsWith("-")) {
    throw new Error(
      `${prefix}Linter plugin name must start and end with a lowercase letter.`,
    );
  }
  if (plugin.name.includes("--")) {
    throw new Error(
      `${prefix}Linter plugin name must not have consequtive hyphens.`,
    );
  }
  if (typeof plugin.rules !== "object") {
    throw new Error(`${prefix}Linter plugin rules must be an object`);

View on GitHub (pinned to 89f33cbef2)

Solutions

1. Restore the original helper Info.plist by rebuilding or re-downloading the bundle (clear the laufey cache)
2. If you edited plists yourself, re-add `CFBundleIdentifier` with the original value
3. Update Deno / clear the cache if the shipped archive is the likely cause
4. Report a bug if untouched, freshly downloaded bundles trigger it

const dict = parsePlist(await Deno.readTextFile(helperPlistPath));
if (typeof dict['CFBundleIdentifier'] !== 'string') {
  throw new Error('helper plist lacks CFBundleIdentifier — rebuild or re-download the bundle');
}

interface HelperPlist { CFBundleIdentifier?: string }
function hasBundleId(p: HelperPlist): p is HelperPlist & { CFBundleIdentifier: string } {
  return typeof p.CFBundleIdentifier === 'string' && p.CFBundleIdentifier.length > 0;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Helper Info.plist files that were manually edited, stripped, or replaced in the bundle; or a laufey archive revision whose helper plists renamed/removed the key (version skew with this Deno).

Common situations: Users customizing generated app bundles (renaming helpers, minifying plists); a backend archive from a newer laufey than the Deno build expects.

Related errors

• The bench function must have a name
• Unexpected second argument to Deno.bench()
• Unexpected 'fn' field in options, bench function is already
• Either `node` or `range` must be provided when reporting an
• Invalid range. Start value is bigger than end value: [${star

AI-assisted analysis of denoland/deno@89f33cbef2 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/62aed8c650f9945b. Report an issue: GitHub.