gohugoio/hugo · error

failed to load CODEOWNERS

Error message

failed to load CODEOWNERS: %w

What it means

Raised at page__new.go:95 when HugoSites.codeownersForPage cannot resolve CODEOWNERS data for a page. codeownersForPage triggers the same one-shot gitInfo init that loadGitInfo (hugo_sites.go:546) runs; newCodeOwners (codeowners.go:54) finds and parses the CODEOWNERS file. The wrapped error is the parse/IO failure.

Solutions

1. Open the CODEOWNERS file and fix the offending line flagged by the wrapped error (commonly a malformed glob or missing owner).
2. If CODEOWNERS metadata is not needed, set `enableGitInfo = false` or remove/rename the CODEOWNERS file so it is not picked up.
3. Validate the file against GitHub's CODEOWNERS syntax and simplify any advanced patterns.

Example fix

# before (CODEOWNERS with bad line)
/src/ @team-a not-an-owner

# after
/src/ @team-a @team-b

# If you ship a CODEOWNERS file, lint it as part of CI.
# A minimal check: every non-comment line must end with at least one owner token.
awk 'NF && $1 !~ /^#/ && NF < 2 {print FILENAME ":" NR ": missing owner"; exit 1}' CODEOWNERS

When it happens

Trigger: enableGitInfo = true is set and a CODEOWNERS file exists but is malformed (bad pattern, unparseable line); the CODEOWNERS file cannot be read due to permissions; the codeowners library rejects a rule syntax it does not support.

Common situations: Adopting CODEOWNERS in a Hugo project with a hand-edited file that contains a syntax the parser rejects; a CODEOWNERS inherited from GitHub with a feature Hugo's parser does not support; file permission issues in containerized builds.

Related errors

• failed to load Git data
• babel config not found
• cannot use --renderToMemory with --destination
• cardinalityThreshold threshold must be between 0 and 100
• exif failed

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d0ff64db6fcbb1bf. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at hugolib/page__new.go:95

		},
	}

	if ps.IsHome() && ps.PathInfo().IsLeafBundle() {
		msg := "Using %s in your content's root directory is usually incorrect for your home page. "
		msg += "You should use %s instead. If you don't rename this file, your home page will be "
		msg += "treated as a leaf bundle, meaning it won't be able to have any child pages or sections."
		ps.s.Log.Warnidf(constants.WarnHomePageIsLeafBundle, msg, ps.PathInfo().PathNoLeadingSlash(), strings.ReplaceAll(ps.PathInfo().PathNoLeadingSlash(), "index", "_index"))
	}

	if m.f != nil {
		gi, err := s.h.gitInfoForPage(ps)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to load Git data: %w", err)
		}
		ps.gitInfo = gi
		owners, err := s.h.codeownersForPage(ps)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to load CODEOWNERS: %w", err)
		}
		ps.codeowners = owners
	}

	ps.pageMenus = &pageMenus{p: ps}
	ps.PageMenusProvider = ps.pageMenus
	ps.GetPageProvider = pageSiteAdapter{s: s, p: ps}
	ps.GitInfoProvider = ps
	ps.TranslationsProvider = ps
	ps.ResourceDataProvider = newDataFunc(ps)
	ps.RawContentProvider = ps
	ps.ChildCareProvider = ps
	ps.TreeProvider = pageTree{p: ps}
	ps.Eqer = ps
	ps.TranslationKeyProvider = ps
	ps.ShortcodeInfoProvider = ps
	ps.AlternativeOutputFormatsProvider = ps

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