different-ai/openwork · error

latest-mac.yml is missing version.

Error message

latest-mac.yml is missing version.

What it means

parseElectronLatestMacYml performs a minimal parse of the auto-update metadata file latest-mac.yml (emitted by electron-builder for macOS updates). The `version` field is mandatory because it identifies the release being downloaded and verified; when it is absent the function throws this explicit message rather than proceeding with an unusable artifact descriptor.

Source

Thrown at apps/app/src/app/lib/electron-alpha.ts:48

  if (!match?.[1]) return null;
  return match[1].trim().replace(/^['"]|['"]$/g, "");
}

function resolveArtifactUrl(pathOrUrl: string): string {
  if (/^https:\/\//i.test(pathOrUrl)) return pathOrUrl;
  return new URL(pathOrUrl, `${ELECTRON_ALPHA_RELEASE_BASE_URL}/`).toString();
}

export function parseElectronLatestMacYml(
  raw: string,
  arch: "arm64" | "x64",
): ElectronAlphaArtifact {
  const version = parseYamlScalar(raw, "version");
  const path = parseYamlScalar(raw, "path") ?? parseFirstFileUrl(raw);
  const sha512 = parseYamlScalar(raw, "sha512");

  if (!version) {
    throw new Error("latest-mac.yml is missing version.");
  }
  if (!path) {
    throw new Error("latest-mac.yml is missing artifact path/url.");
  }
  if (!sha512) {
    throw new Error("latest-mac.yml is missing sha512.");
  }

  return {
    arch,
    manifestUrl: ELECTRON_ALPHA_LATEST_MAC_YML_URL,
    releaseUrl: ELECTRON_ALPHA_RELEASE_PAGE_URL,
    url: resolveArtifactUrl(path),
    path,
    version,
    sha512,
  };
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2b7df46e8a)

Solutions

1. Regenerate and re-upload latest-mac.yml from the electron-builder release output for the affected macOS build (do not hand-edit it).
2. Verify the URL actually serves the YAML: `curl -s <url>/latest-mac.yml | head` — if you get HTML, fix the CDN/host path or release channel URL.
3. If the feed is self-hosted, re-run the publish step (electron-builder --publish) so version/path/sha512 are all written together.
4. Add a pre-flight check in the fetcher: validate the response content-type/first line before passing the body to parseElectronLatestMacYml to get a clearer error.

Example fix

// before
const artifact = resolveElectronAlphaArtifact(await res.text());

// after
const body = await res.text();
if (!res.ok || !/^version:/m.test(body)) {
  throw new Error(`latest-mac.yml fetch invalid (HTTP ${res.status})`);
}
const artifact = resolveElectronAlphaArtifact(body);

const res = await fetch(latestMacYmlUrl);
const body = await res.text();
if (!res.ok || !/^version:\s*\S+/m.test(body)) {
  throw new Error(`Invalid latest-mac.yml at ${latestMacYmlUrl} (HTTP ${res.status})`);
}

try {
  resolveElectronAlphaArtifact(body);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.startsWith("latest-mac.yml is missing")) {
    await reFetchAndVerifyUpdateFeed(); // regenerate/re-download the manifest
  } else { throw err; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: resolveElectronAlphaArtifact fetching latest-mac.yml content where parseYamlScalar(raw, "version") returns empty — the file is truncated, an HTML error page was served instead of YAML (bad CDN/proxy), a manually edited feed dropped the version key, or a partially-written upload.

Common situations: A release pipeline that uploaded the mac zip but published a broken/empty latest-mac.yml; a proxy or misconfigured static host returning an HTML 404 page whose 'version:' scalar parses to nothing; hand-edited alpha update feeds on a self-hosted server; network middleware stripping the file body.

Related errors

• Electron desktop helper is unavailable: ${command}
• Electron desktop helper is unavailable: ${prop}
• Failed to open browser
• ${result}
• Electron eval relaunch helper is unavailable.

AI-assisted analysis of different-ai/openwork@2b7df46e8a (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f3e488748caa4c94. Report an issue: GitHub.