pbakaus/impeccable · error

Error: {}

Error message

Error: {}

What it means

When shared browser-based scanning is requested, the CLI launches a shared browser once up front (`ensure_launched()`); if that fails it marks an operational failure, prints `Error: <message>` to stderr, closes the shared browser, and (per the accompanying comment) every URL target in the run is skipped so the failure is reported exactly once. This covers browser install/launch problems rather than per-URL fetch errors.

Source

Thrown at crates/detect/src/cli.rs:569

        let paths: Vec<String> = if targets.is_empty() {
            vec![cwd.clone()]
        } else {
            targets.clone()
        };
        let url_count = paths.iter().filter(|p| URL_RE.is_match(p)).count();
        let mut shared = if url_count > 1 {
            engines.url.and_then(|u| u.open_shared())
        } else {
            None
        };
        // JS: `await createBrowserDetector()` throws before the loop; the
        // failure is reported once and every URL target is skipped (#711).
        let mut browser_setup_failed = false;
        if let Some(s) = shared.as_deref() {
            if let Err(e) = s.ensure_launched() {
                browser_setup_failed = true;
                ctx.had_operational_failure = true;
                ctx.io.err(&format!("Error: {}\n", e.message));
            }
        }
        if browser_setup_failed {
            if let Some(s) = shared.take() {
                s.close();
            }
        }
        let result = scan_targets(
            &mut ctx,
            &paths,
            shared.as_deref(),
            browser_setup_failed,
            &mut all,
        );
        if let Some(s) = shared {
            s.close();
        }
        result?;

View on GitHub (pinned to 2bc2879276)

Solutions

1. Install/repair the browser the engine uses (reinstall the CLI or run its setup/download step) and retry the URL scan.
2. Check the printed message for the underlying cause (missing binary vs. launch failure) and install missing OS dependencies (`apt-get install` the needed libs on CI Linux images).
3. Scan local paths with `impeccable detect <path>` instead — the local path doesn't require the shared browser.
4. Ensure the CI job has permission to spawn processes (not a restricted sandbox).

Example fix

// before
impeccable detect https://example.com   # browser binary missing
// after
# install engine/browser assets first, then
impeccable detect https://example.com

import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
// verify browser availability before scanning URLs
execFileSync("impeccable", ["detect", "--help"], { stdio: "ignore" });
// ensure any setup/download step has run in this environment

try {
  execFileSync("impeccable", ["detect", url], { stdio: "pipe" });
} catch (e) {
  if (/Error: /.test(e.stderr?.toString() ?? "") && isUrlTarget(url)) {
    console.error(`Browser unavailable; falling back to local scan or skipping ${url}`);
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `impeccable detect <url> ...` where the shared browser cannot start: the browser binary is missing or not downloaded, launch times out, the platform lacks deps, or the environment forbids spawning the process (sandboxed CI).

Common situations: Fresh CI containers without the bundled browser installed; headless Linux boxes missing shared libraries; sandboxed environments blocking process launch; version mismatch after an engine upgrade changed the pinned browser.

Understand the failure class

Background: ECONNREFUSED and "connection refused" / "could not connect to server" errors: what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 44 libraries.

Related errors

• concept-seed: --candidate-count must be an integer from 5 to
• Unknown ignore-rule flag: ${arg}
• Pass a rule id, e.g. ${IMPECCABLE_COMMAND} hooks ignore-rule
• overused-font is value-specific by default. Use ${IMPECCABLE
• --reason is not supported for ignore-file because detector.i

AI-assisted analysis of pbakaus/impeccable@2bc2879276 (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2772ec2b466f1786. Report an issue: GitHub.