dotnet/maui · error · Exception

PowerShell Core (pwsh) is not installed. Please install it t

Error message

PowerShell Core (pwsh) is not installed. Please install it to continue.

What it means

Thrown when the script cannot locate the pwsh executable. On non-Windows (or the fallback path) it runs `which pwsh`; a non-zero exit code means PowerShell Core is not installed or not on PATH, so the update-cgmanifest.ps1 script cannot be executed.

Source

Thrown at eng/cake/dotnet.cake:599

                RedirectStandardError = true
            });
            if (exitCode != 0)
            {
                Information("pwsh not found, falling back to powershell");
                pwshExecutable = "powershell";
            }
        }
        else
        {
            var exitCode = StartProcess("which", new ProcessSettings
            {
                Arguments = "pwsh",
                RedirectStandardOutput = true,
                RedirectStandardError = true
            });
            if (exitCode != 0)
            {
                throw new Exception("PowerShell Core (pwsh) is not installed. Please install it to continue.");
            }
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex) when (!IsRunningOnWindows())
    {
        Error("Error checking for pwsh: " + ex.Message);
        throw new Exception("PowerShell Core (pwsh) is required on non-Windows platforms. Please install it and try again.");
    }

    // Execute the PowerShell script
    StartProcess(pwshExecutable, new ProcessSettings
    {
        Arguments = "-NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./eng/scripts/update-cgmanifest.ps1"
    });
});

Task("publicapi")
    .Description("Clears PublicAPI.Unshipped.txt files and regenerates them with current public APIs. Processes Core, Controls, Essentials, and Graphics projects. Skips Windows files on non-Windows platforms and always skips Tizen files. Use after adding new public APIs to resolve build errors.")

View on GitHub (pinned to f377ff1c5e)

Solutions

1. Install PowerShell Core: on Linux use the Microsoft package repository (`sudo apt-get install -y powershell`), on macOS use `brew install --cask powershell`.
2. Verify with `which pwsh` returning 0 before re-running the cake target.
3. In CI images, switch to an image that bundles pwsh or add an install step before the cake invocation.

// Pre-flight check before the cgmanifest task
var pwshProbe = StartProcess("which", new ProcessSettings { Arguments = "pwsh", RedirectStandardOutput = true, Silent = true });
if (pwshProbe != 0) {
    Information("pwsh not found — skipping cgmanifest update (install PowerShell Core to enable).");
    return;
}

When it happens

Trigger: The pwsh lookup branch executes `StartProcess("which", "pwsh")` and exitCode != 0. This indicates no pwsh binary resolvable by the system PATH.

Common situations: Fresh Linux/macOS CI agent without PowerShell Core installed; a Docker container missing the powershell package; PATH not updated after installing pwsh via package manager.

Related errors

• PowerShell Core (pwsh) is required on non-Windows platforms.
• Unable to find Visual Studio!
• Environment variable 'ANDROID_SDK_ROOT' or 'ANDROID_HOME' mu
• JAVA_HOME environment variable isn't set. Set it to your JDK
• Failed to download the package.

AI-assisted analysis of dotnet/maui@f377ff1c5e (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0802bc449ea8b0ef. Report an issue: GitHub.