goreleaser/goreleaser · error

node: write sea-config.json: %w

Error message

node: write sea-config.json: %w

What it means

This error wraps the failure of os.WriteFile when GoReleaser tries to write the generated sea-config.json into the build directory during Node.js Single Executable Application (SEA) builds. The config file is what goreleaser later hands to `node --build-sea`, so if it cannot be written the SEA build cannot proceed. The wrapped %w preserves the underlying OS error (permissions, disk full, missing directory).

Source

Thrown at internal/builders/node/sea.go:50

		return fmt.Errorf("node: abs build dir %q: %w", build.Dir, err)
	}

	cfg, err := buildSEAConfigJSON(
		absBuildDir,
		absMainPath,
		targetNode,
		output,
	)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	cfgBytes, err := json.MarshalIndent(cfg, "", "  ")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if err := os.WriteFile(name, cfgBytes, 0o600); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("node: write sea-config.json: %w", err)
	}
	return nil
}

// buildSEAConfigJSON renders the sea-config.json contents goreleaser
// will hand to `node --build-sea`. Starts from the user's
// sea-config.json in buildDir (if any), then forces the
// goreleaser-owned fields and rewrites relative `assets` paths to be
// absolute relative to buildDir so they survive the move into the
// dist directory.
func buildSEAConfigJSON(buildDir, mainPath, targetNode, output string) (map[string]any, error) {
	cfg, err := loadUserSEAConfig(buildDir)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	cfg["main"] = mainPath
	cfg["output"] = output

View on GitHub (pinned to f5edd73956)

Solutions

1. Check the underlying wrapped error (printed after 'node: write sea-config.json:') to see if it is ENOENT, EACCES, or ENOSPC and fix accordingly.
2. Ensure the build directory (build.Dir) exists and is writable by the user running goreleaser before the build.
3. Free disk space or raise quota if the error is no-space-left-on-device.
4. Do not run the build from a read-only mount; adjust volume/container permissions.

Example fix

// before: building inside a root-owned directory
// $ goreleaser build  -> node: write sea-config.json: open ...: permission denied
// after: make the workspace writable
$ sudo chown -R $(whoami) ./dist
$ goreleaser build

const dir = './dist';
try {
  await fs.access(dir, fs.constants.W_OK);
} catch {
  throw new Error(`build dir ${dir} missing or not writable`);
}

When it happens

Trigger: os.WriteFile(name, cfgBytes, 0o600) fails inside createSEAConfig (called from Build): e.g. the build directory does not exist, the process lacks write permission on it, or the disk is full.

Common situations: Building in a read-only CI workspace or one where a previous step deleted the dist/build directory; running goreleaser as a non-root user against a root-owned directory; a read-only container filesystem; disk quota exhaustion.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Permission denied" / "Failed to write" file errors: why a library can't write its files to disk (EACCES, EPERM, ENOSPC) and how to fix them — this error's family across 43 libraries.

Related errors

• node: read %s: %w
• %s is not a valid build target
• node: template tool: %w
• node: resolve node version: %w
• node: read package.json: %w

AI-assisted analysis of goreleaser/goreleaser@f5edd73956 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1892f434c3a8b6ef. Report an issue: GitHub.