hasura/graphql-engine · error

operation failed: %w

Error message

operation failed: %w

What it means

Init FSM failure: after SendEvent(createProjectDirectory) the state machine is in failedOperation, so the stored context.err (from createExecutionDirectory/createFiles) is wrapped as 'operation failed'. This aggregates the per-step init failures described in errors 49-57.

Source

Thrown at cli/commands/init.go:366

func (o *InitOptions) Run() error {
	var op errors.Op = "commands.InitOptions.Run"

	context := &initCtx{
		ec:      o.EC,
		initOps: o,
		logger:  o.EC.Logger,
		err:     nil,
	}

	configInitFSM := newInitFSM()

	err := configInitFSM.SendEvent(createProjectDirectory, context)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.E(op, err)
	}

	if configInitFSM.Current == failedOperation {
		return errors.E(op, fmt.Errorf("operation failed: %w", context.err))
	}

	return nil
}

const (
	creatingProjectDirectory stateType = "Creating project directory"
	failedCreatingProjectDir stateType = "Failed to create project directory"
	validatingEndpoint       stateType = "Validating Endpoint"
	failedValidatingEndpoint stateType = "Failed validating endpoint"
	exportingMetadata        stateType = "Exporting Metadata"
	failedExportingMetadata  stateType = "Failed to export Metadata"
	creatingMigration        stateType = "Creating Migration"
	failedCreatingMigration  stateType = "Failed creating Migration"
	endState                 stateType = "End State"
)

const (

View on GitHub (pinned to 724551b9ae)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped context.err to find the failing step and apply the matching fix (existing dir, permissions, URL validity)
2. Pre-check the target directory (writable, non-existent, not already a Hasura project) before init in scripts
3. Re-run init after cleaning the failed target directory

// pre-flight the whole init
if _, err := os.Stat(target); err == nil { log.Fatal("target exists") }
if _, err := url.ParseRequestURI(endpoint); endpoint != "" && err != nil { log.Fatal("bad endpoint") }
if err := os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(target), 0o755); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) }

if err := initCmd.Run(); err != nil {
    var inner error
    if errors.As(err, &inner) { log.Printf("init step failed: %v", inner) }
    // remediate (dir exists / perms / URL) then retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: `hasura init` where directory creation or file scaffolding fails — existing directory, permission denial, read-only FS, invalid endpoint URL, or config write failure.

Common situations: Non-idempotent automation re-running `hasura init` into an existing folder; CI containers with restricted mounts; invalid --endpoint values.

Related errors

• operation failed: %w
• prompt exited: %w
• error getting current working directory: %w
• can't initialise hasura project in filesystem root: %w
• directory '%s' already exists

AI-assisted analysis of hasura/graphql-engine@724551b9ae (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cb8085f7dafe4ec0. Report an issue: GitHub.