What causes "Unable to create package.json: ${e}" in hcengineering/platform?

Ensure the package install folder is writable by the current user (fix ownership/permissions)

Unable to create package.json: ${e}

Error message

Unable to create package.json: ${e}

What it means

_createPackageJson writes a minimal package.json (name 'ci-rush', dependencies containing the target package) into the package install folder with writeFileSync. If the write fails, the error is rethrown as 'Unable to create package.json: ${e}'. Without this file npm install cannot set up the isolated package folder.

Source

Thrown at foundations/utils/common/scripts/install-run.js:626

    }
}
function _createPackageJson(packageInstallFolder, name, version) {
    try {
        const packageJsonContents = {
            name: 'ci-rush',
            version: '0.0.0',
            dependencies: {
                [name]: version
            },
            description: "DON'T WARN",
            repository: "DON'T WARN",
            license: 'MIT'
        };
        const packageJsonPath = path__WEBPACK_IMPORTED_MODULE_3__.join(packageInstallFolder, PACKAGE_JSON_FILENAME);
        fs__WEBPACK_IMPORTED_MODULE_1__.writeFileSync(packageJsonPath, JSON.stringify(packageJsonContents, undefined, 2));
    }
    catch (e) {
        throw new Error(`Unable to create package.json: ${e}`);
    }
}
/**
 * Run "npm install" in the package install folder.
 */
function _installPackage(logger, packageInstallFolder, name, version, command) {
    try {
        logger.info(`Installing ${name}...`);
        const npmPath = getNpmPath();
        const platformNpmPath = _getPlatformPath(npmPath);
        const result = child_process__WEBPACK_IMPORTED_MODULE_0__.spawnSync(platformNpmPath, [command], {
            stdio: 'inherit',
            cwd: packageInstallFolder,
            env: process.env,
            shell: _isWindows()
        });
        if (result.status !== 0) {
            throw new Error(`"npm ${command}" encountered an error`);

View on GitHub (pinned to 63e28dc964)

Solutions

Ensure the package install folder is writable by the current user (fix ownership/permissions)
Free disk space / check quota
Delete the package install folder so it is recreated cleanly and re-run
Inspect the wrapped cause (`: ${e}`) for the exact fs error code

Example fix

// before
ls -l common/temp/install-run/packages   # owned by root
// after
sudo chown -R $(whoami) common/temp/install-run
node common/scripts/install-run.js pnpm install

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const pkgDir = path.join(tempDir, 'install-run', 'packages');
fs.mkdirSync(pkgDir, { recursive: true });
fs.accessSync(pkgDir, fs.constants.W_OK);
const pj = path.join(pkgDir, 'package.json');
if (fs.existsSync(pj) && fs.statSync(pj).isDirectory()) {
  throw new Error(`${pj} exists as a directory; remove it before rerunning`);
}

Try / catch

try {
  installAndRun(/* ... */);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.startsWith('Unable to create package.json')) {
    fs.rmSync(pkgDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
    return installAndRun(/* ... */);
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Ensure the CI workspace (including common/temp) is writable by the job user
Watch for disk-quota errors on shared runners
Remove leftover package install folders after failed runs

When it happens

Trigger: writeFileSync on <packageInstallFolder>/package.json throws — read-only folder, disk full, path is a directory, or permission denied after _cleanInstallFolder partially succeeded.

Common situations: Read-only CI workspace mounts; disk quota exceeded on shared runners; packageInstallFolder existing as a file or with wrong ownership after a previous failed run.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hcengineering/platform@63e28dc964 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ad38f1299b7e1a6b. Report an issue: GitHub.