What causes "brew-cask: font artifact '{}' was not staged" in jdx/mise?

Re-run the cask install so staging completes fully before linking

brew-cask: font artifact '{}' was not staged

Error message

brew-cask: font artifact '{}' was not staged

What it means

After staging a cask's payload, mise links declared font artifacts from the caskroom into the user's font directory. Before linking, it verifies the staged font file actually exists at the expected caskroom path; this error is thrown when the font artifact named in the cask definition was not found in the staged output.

Source

Thrown at src/system/packages/brew/cask/mod.rs:2485

    sudo::run("installer", &args, &[])
}

fn stage_font(stage: &Path, caskroom: &Path, font: &FontArtifact) -> Result<()> {
    let caskroom_font = caskroom_font_path(caskroom, font)?;
    file::remove_all(&caskroom_font)?;
    if let Some(parent) = caskroom_font.parent() {
        file::create_dir_all(parent)?;
    }
    let source = find_file_artifact(stage, &font.source)
        .ok_or_else(|| eyre!("brew-cask: font artifact '{}' was not found", font.source))?;
    copy_cask_artifact(&source, &caskroom_font)?;
    Ok(())
}

fn link_font(caskroom: &Path, font: &FontArtifact) -> Result<()> {
    let caskroom_font = caskroom_font_path(caskroom, font)?;
    if !caskroom_font.is_file() {
        bail!("brew-cask: font artifact '{}' was not staged", font.source);
    }
    let target = font_target_path(font)?;
    if let Some(parent) = target.parent() {
        file::create_dir_all(parent)?;
    }
    // Atomic swap: rename existing font aside before copying the new one so
    // that a failure during copy leaves the old font intact.
    let old_target = target.with_extension(format!(
        "mise-old-{}",
        crate::hash::hash_to_str(&target.display().to_string())
    ));
    file::remove_all(&old_target)?;
    if target.exists() {
        file::rename(&target, &old_target)?;
    }
    if let Err(e) = copy_cask_artifact(&caskroom_font, &target) {
        if old_target.exists() {
            let _ = file::rename(&old_target, &target);

View on GitHub (pinned to afd2eddd3a)

Solutions

Re-run the cask install so staging completes fully before linking
Check the cask definition's font source path against what was actually staged (list the caskroom contents)
Update mise / the cask definition if the upstream font was renamed
Report the cask as broken upstream if the artifact name no longer matches

Example fix

// before: stale staged font from failed install
rm -rf <caskroom-dir> && mise install <cask>
// after: fresh stage then link succeeds

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

test -f <caskroom>/<cask>/<font-source> || echo "font artifact missing from stage"

Try / catch

match result {
  Err(e) if e.contains("font artifact") && e.contains("was not staged") => {
    eprintln!("staged font missing; reinstall cask to restage: {e}");
  }
  Err(e) => return Err(e),
  Ok(v) => v,
}

Prevention

Let installs complete fully before interrupting
After upstream updates, verify the cask's font stanza still matches the released payload
Only use casks from sources that keep artifact names stable

When it happens

Trigger: `link_font` calls `caskroom_font_path(caskroom, font)` and `!caskroom_font.is_file()` — the cask declared a `font` stanza whose staged file is missing, was renamed upstream, or staging partially failed.

Common situations: A cask definition references a font file whose upstream URL/name changed; a partial or failed stage left the caskroom incomplete; the cask's artifact list drifted from what the installer actually downloaded.

Understand the failure class

Background: "File not found" and ENOENT errors: why libraries can't find a file that should exist — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jdx/mise@afd2eddd3a (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9095f10b4a24c037. Report an issue: GitHub.