oven-sh/bun · error

Failed to find available image: ${imageId}

Error message

Failed to find available image: ${imageId}

What it means

getAvailableImage() waits for an AMI to become available (`ec2 wait image-available`), then re-describes it filtered to state=available; the error means the image id is no longer listed as available — it failed to build, was deregistered, or the describe filters (owner) no longer match.

Source

Thrown at scripts/machine.mjs:351

   */
  async getAvailableImage(imageOrImageId) {
    let imageId = imageOrImageId;
    if (typeof imageOrImageId === "object") {
      const { ImageId, State } = imageOrImageId;
      if (State === "available") {
        return imageOrImageId;
      }
      imageId = ImageId;
    }

    await aws.waitImage("image-available", imageId);
    const [availableImage] = await aws.describeImages({
      "state": "available",
      "image-id": imageId,
    });

    if (!availableImage) {
      throw new Error(`Failed to find available image: ${imageId}`);
    }

    return availableImage;
  },

  /**
   * @param {MachineOptions} options
   * @returns {Promise<AwsImage>}
   */
  async getBaseImage(options) {
    const { os, arch, distro, release } = options;

    let name, owner;
    if (os === "linux") {
      if (!distro || distro === "debian") {
        owner = "amazon";
        name = `debian-${release || "*"}-${arch === "aarch64" ? "arm64" : "amd64"}-*`;
      } else if (distro === "ubuntu") {

View on GitHub (pinned to 8c5296ac45)

Solutions

1. Check the image's real state: `aws ec2 describe-images --image-ids <id> --region <region>` (State: available/failed/pending)
2. If State is 'failed', rebuild the image from scratch
3. Avoid concurrent jobs that deregister the same AMI
4. Retry after a short delay if it was pure consistency lag

const state = await $`aws ec2 describe-images --image-ids ${imageId} --query 'Images[0].State'`.text();
if (state.trim() === 'failed') {
  throw new Error(`AMI ${imageId} failed to build — rebuild it instead of waiting`);
}

When it happens

Trigger: The pending image transitioned to 'failed' after the waiter returned; a concurrent CI job deregistered the AMI between wait and describe; describing with an owner filter that excludes the image's actual owner.

Common situations: Packer/EC2 image bake failed mid-way leaving a dead AMI id; overlapping publish pipelines deregistering each other's images.

Related errors

• Failed to run instances: ${inspect(instanceOptions)}
• No base image found: ${inspect(options)}
• Failed to get password data for instance: ${instanceId}
• Failed to import key pair: ${keyName}
• BUILDKITE_AGENT_TOKEN not set and no existing buildkite-agen

AI-assisted analysis of oven-sh/bun@8c5296ac45 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e43040a6eed9a516. Report an issue: GitHub.