What causes "bin.orca target is not executable: ${binTarget}" in stablyai/orca?

Re-run verify-cli-bin with --fix-executable so it sets the exec bits (chmod | 0o755).

bin.orca target is not executable: ${binTarget}

Error message

bin.orca target is not executable: ${binTarget}

What it means

On non-Windows platforms the bin target must have at least one executable bit set (mode & 0o111). The check reads stats.mode captured earlier; if no exec bit is set and --fix-executable was not passed, it throws. With --fix-executable it chmods the path to add 0o755. This guarantees the published CLI is invokable as `orca` from PATH on macOS/Linux.

Source

Thrown at config/scripts/verify-cli-bin.mjs:76

    if (error && typeof error === 'object' && 'code' in error && error.code === 'ENOENT') {
      throw new Error(
        `compiled CLI package boundary is missing: ${path.relative(projectDir, outPackageJsonPath)}`
      )
    }
    throw error
  }
  if (outPackageJson.type !== 'commonjs') {
    throw new Error(
      `compiled CLI package boundary must declare type=commonjs: ${path.relative(
        projectDir,
        outPackageJsonPath
      )}`
    )
  }

  if (process.platform !== 'win32' && (stats.mode & 0o111) === 0) {
    if (!fixExecutable) {
      throw new Error(`bin.orca target is not executable: ${binTarget}`)
    }
    chmodSync(binPath, stats.mode | 0o755)
  }

  if (runHelp) {
    execFileSync(process.execPath, [binPath, '--help'], {
      cwd: projectDir,
      stdio: 'ignore'
    })
  }

  return { binPath, outPackageJsonPath, size: statSync(binPath).size }
}

/** Runs CLI verification from npm scripts and local release checks. */
function main() {
  const args = new Set(process.argv.slice(2))
  const result = verifyPackageCliBin({

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

Re-run verify-cli-bin with --fix-executable so it sets the exec bits (chmod | 0o755).
Or `chmod +x <bin-path>` manually and re-run without flags.
Fix the build/packaging step to preserve the exec bit so future builds don't regress.

Example fix

# before
node config/scripts/verify-cli-bin.mjs
# after
node config/scripts/verify-cli-bin.mjs --fix-executable

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (process.platform !== 'win32' && (statSync(binPath).mode & 0o111) === 0) {
  // pass --fix-executable to the verifier, or chmod here
  chmodSync(binPath, statSync(binPath).mode | 0o755)
}

Prevention

Run verify-cli-bin --fix-executable in CI to set exec bits automatically.
Ensure packaging preserves the exec bit (use `cp -p`, tar with perms).

When it happens

Trigger: process.platform !== 'win32' AND (stats.mode & 0o111) === 0 AND fixExecutable is false, at line 74-76. Triggered when the build emits the bin without exec permission (e.g. a cp that reset mode, or a tarball extraction without --no-same-owner preserving perms).

Common situations: Building the CLI on one host and packaging on another where exec bits were stripped; a `cp` without -p; npm pack/unpack that normalized permissions.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/af2ea20aee232df4. Report an issue: GitHub.