gohugoio/hugo · error

%s

Error message

%s

What it means

The fallback error formatter used in BuildClient.Build when an esbuild error has a Location but Hugo fails to open or stat the referenced source file. When the file lookup itself errors, the original esbuild message text is returned via fmt.Errorf("%s", errorMessage) without source-context attachment.

Source

Thrown at internal/js/esbuild/build.go:173

				contentr = resolvedError.Content
				errorPath = resolvedError.Path
				errorMessage = resolvedError.Message
			}

			if contentr != nil {
				defer contentr.Close()
			}

			if err == nil {
				fe := herrors.
					NewFileErrorFromName(errors.New(errorMessage), errorPath).
					UpdatePosition(text.Position{Offset: -1, LineNumber: loc.Line, ColumnNumber: loc.Column}).
					UpdateContent(contentr, nil)

				return fe
			}

			return fmt.Errorf("%s", errorMessage)
		}

		var errors []error

		for _, msg := range result.Errors {
			errors = append(errors, createErr(msg))
		}

		// Return 1, log the rest.
		for i, err := range errors {
			if i > 0 {
				c.rs.Logger.Errorf("js.Build failed: %s", err)
			}
		}

		return result, errors[0]
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 52c9bd7908)

Solutions

1. Read the message text directly — it is esbuild's original diagnostic.
2. Cross-reference the failing import/entry point in your assets to reconstruct context.
3. If reproducible, run `hugo --gc` to clear stale state and rebuild.

When Build returns an error, do not assume it carries source-line context; check whether the error implements herrors.FileError before rendering line annotations, and fall back to printing the raw message text.

When it happens

Trigger: Esbuild returns a build error referencing a file path; Hugo's attempt to open/stat that path (either on the OS filesystem or the source filesystem) fails with err != nil. The fallback path executes, returning the bare esbuild text without line-anchored content.

Common situations: Errors pointing to generated/virtual files that have no backing on disk; transient file-not-found during server rebuilds; source files in Hugo namespaces that don't map to a real file.

Related errors

• {}
• id must be set
• id must not contain backslashes
• id must not contain forward slashes
• failed to build JS batch %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/538455e1dc7f3358. Report an issue: GitHub.