headroomlabs-ai/headroom · error · Error

${pkg.name} has non-portable ${field}.${name} spec: ${spec}

Error message

${pkg.name} has non-portable ${field}.${name} spec: ${spec}

What it means

Error "${pkg.name} has non-portable ${field}.${name} spec: ${spec}" thrown in headroomlabs-ai/headroom.

Source

Thrown at scripts/verify_npm_release_assets.mjs:62

    const result = spawnSync("tar", ["-xzf", tarballPath, "-C", workdir], {
      encoding: "utf8",
    });
    if (result.status !== 0) {
      throw new Error(
        `tar failed for ${tarballPath}: ${result.stderr || result.stdout || "unknown error"}`,
      );
    }
    return JSON.parse(readFileSync(path.join(workdir, packageJsonPath), "utf8"));
  } finally {
    rmSync(workdir, { recursive: true, force: true });
  }
}

function assertNoFileDependencies(pkg) {
  for (const field of ["dependencies", "peerDependencies", "optionalDependencies"]) {
    for (const [name, spec] of Object.entries(pkg[field] || {})) {
      if (typeof spec === "string" && (spec.startsWith("file:") || spec.includes("release-assets"))) {
        throw new Error(`${pkg.name} has non-portable ${field}.${name} spec: ${spec}`);
      }
    }
  }
}

function runNpm(args, cwd) {
  if (process.platform === "win32") {
    return spawnSync("cmd.exe", ["/d", "/s", "/c", "npm.cmd", ...args], {
      cwd,
      encoding: "utf8",
    });
  }

  return spawnSync("npm", args, {
    cwd,
    encoding: "utf8",
  });
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 322425c43b)

Solutions

1. Replace the non-portable dependency spec (e.g. file:, link:, workspace:) with a published version range in ${field}.${name}
2. Pin the dependency to an exact released version for release builds

When it happens

Trigger: Raised by the npm release asset verifier when a package.json dependency spec is not portable (file/link/workspace protocol), which would break published installs.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of headroomlabs-ai/headroom@322425c43b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1cb266cc29cac887. Report an issue: GitHub.