usebruno/bruno · critical · Error

Failed to create default location

Error message

Failed to create default location

What it means

Thrown by resolveDefaultLocation when every candidate directory failed to create. Candidates are ~/Documents/bruno and the Electron userData dir; each is attempted with mkdirSync(recursive:true), and only if all throw does this fire. It signals a systemic inability to write to any user-writable location.

Source

Thrown at packages/bruno-electron/src/utils/default-location.js:26

 * Returns the default location where new workspaces and collections are stored.
 * Checks ~/Documents/bruno if available, otherwise falls back to the app's data directory
 */
function resolveDefaultLocation() {
  const defaultPaths = [
    path.join(app.getPath('documents'), BRUNO_DIR_NAME),
    app.getPath('userData')
  ];

  for (const dirPath of defaultPaths) {
    try {
      fs.mkdirSync(dirPath, { recursive: true });
      return dirPath;
    } catch (error) {
      console.warn(`Failed to create directory at ${dirPath}:`, error.message);
    }
  }

  throw new Error('Failed to create default location');
}

module.exports = { resolveDefaultLocation };

View on GitHub (pinned to 9bdd81c7bd)

Solutions

1. Check OS-level write permissions for the user's Documents and userData directories; grant write access or re-run with appropriate privileges.
2. On Linux without a Documents path, set XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR or a valid app.getPath('documents') override.
3. Free disk space if the volume is full.
4. As a last resort, point Bruno's userData to a writable explicit location via app.setPath('userData', ...).

Example fix

// before
for (const dirPath of defaultPaths) {
  try {
    fs.mkdirSync(dirPath, { recursive: true });
    return dirPath;
  } catch (error) {
    console.warn(`Failed to create directory at ${dirPath}:`, error.message);
  }
}
throw new Error('Failed to create default location');

// after: include os.tmpdir() fallback and surface root cause
const defaultPaths = [
  path.join(app.getPath('documents'), BRUNO_DIR_NAME),
  app.getPath('userData'),
  path.join(os.tmpdir(), BRUNO_DIR_NAME)
];

function canWrite(dir) {
  try { fs.accessSync(dir, fs.constants.W_OK); return true; } catch { return false; }
}
const docs = app.getPath('documents');
const userData = app.getPath('userData');
if (!canWrite(path.dirname(docs)) && !canWrite(userData)) {
  throw new Error('No writable default location; check permissions');
}

function isWritableDir(dir) {
  try { fs.mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true }); return true; }
  catch { return false; }
}

try {
  return resolveDefaultLocation();
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message === 'Failed to create default location') {
    // prompt user to pick a writable directory, then app.setPath('userData', picked)
    return await askUserForWritableLocation();
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Both app.getPath('documents') and app.getPath('userData') are unwritable (permissions, read-only mount, sandbox restriction, disk full, or documents path misconfigured on a headless/Linux system where XDG documents is unset).

Common situations: Snap/Flatpak sandbox denying Documents access; corporate-locked home directory; running with a restricted user; broken ELECTRON_USER_DATA_DIR override; disk-full condition.

Related errors

• Unable to load custom CA certificate: ${(err as Error).messa
• Failed to export ${environmentType} environments.
• Failed to process ${parsedFile.fileName}: ${err.message}
• Failed to parse the file – ensure it is valid JSON or YAML
• No files selected

AI-assisted analysis of usebruno/bruno@9bdd81c7bd (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1eab91c7093913d2. Report an issue: GitHub.