yamadashy/repomix · error · PermissionError

Permission denied while scanning directory. Please check fol

Error message

Permission denied while scanning directory. Please check folder access permissions for your terminal app. path: ${rootDir}

What it means

Repomix wraps EPERM/EACCES errors raised while globby scans directories into a PermissionError. It signals that the process lacks OS-level read permission on the directory being packed. The path reported is the root directory of the scan, not necessarily the specific unreadable subdirectory.

Source

Thrown at src/core/file/fileSearch.ts:230

        logger.debug(`[stdin mode] Total include patterns after merge: ${includePatterns.length}`);
      }
    }

    // If no include patterns at all, default to all files
    if (includePatterns.length === 0) {
      includePatterns = ['**/*'];
    }

    logger.trace('Include patterns with explicit files:', includePatterns);
    logger.trace('Ignore patterns:', adjustedIgnorePatterns);
    logger.trace('Ignore file patterns (for globby):', ignoreFilePatterns);

    const handleGlobbyError = (error: unknown): never => {
      // Handle EPERM errors specifically
      const code = (error as NodeJS.ErrnoException | { code?: string })?.code;
      if (code === 'EPERM' || code === 'EACCES') {
        throw new PermissionError(
          `Permission denied while scanning directory. Please check folder access permissions for your terminal app. path: ${rootDir}`,
          rootDir,
        );
      }
      throw error;
    };

    logger.debug('[globby] Starting file search...');
    const globbyStartTime = Date.now();

    let filePaths: string[];
    let emptyDirPaths: string[] = [];

    if (config.output.includeEmptyDirectories) {
      // Single traversal returning both files and directories. The previous implementation
      // ran globby twice with identical options (once for files, once for directories),
      // which re-walks the tree and re-parses every .gitignore/.repomixignore, roughly
      // doubling the discovery cost. Using `objectMode: true` lets us partition the entries

View on GitHub (pinned to f465ad9093)

Solutions

1. Grant the terminal app Full Disk Access (macOS: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access) or access to the specific folder (Files and Folders).
2. Run repomix from a directory you own, or chmod/chown the target directory so the current user can read it.
3. Exclude the unreadable directory via repomix ignore configuration so globby never descends into it.
4. On Linux, run under a user with read access (e.g. sudo) only if appropriate for your environment.

Example fix

// before: scanning a protected folder
repomix ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents

// after: pick an accessible copy or grant access first
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/protected-project
# or add to repomix ignore: "protected-folder/"

import { accessSync, constants } from 'node:fs';
try {
  accessSync(rootDir, constants.R_OK | constants.X_OK);
} catch {
  throw new Error(`No read permission on ${rootDir} — fix permissions or exclude this folder before packing.`);
}

const isErrnoException = (e: unknown): e is NodeJS.ErrnoException =>
  typeof e === 'object' && e !== null && 'code' in e && typeof (e as { code: unknown }).code === 'string';

try {
  await repomix.pack(...);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof PermissionError || (isErrnoException(e) && ['EPERM', 'EACCES'].includes(e.code))) {
    console.error(`Cannot read ${rootDir}: grant the terminal Full Disk Access or exclude this folder.`);
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling searchFiles (via pack/repomix run) when globby's directory walk hits a folder the current user cannot read, causing globby to emit an error with code 'EPERM' or 'EACCES', which handleGlobbyError converts to PermissionError.

Common situations: Scanning directories protected by macOS TCC (Desktop/Documents/Downloads not granted to the terminal app), reading root-owned or other-user directories on Linux, or corporate-restricted folders.

Related errors

• Failed to copy output file to ${targetPath}: Permission deni
• Could not read the remote repository's config (${configName}
• Failed to filter files in directory ${rootDir}. Reason: ${er
• An unexpected error occurred while filtering files.
• Failed to write skill output to ${skillDir}: Permission deni

AI-assisted analysis of yamadashy/repomix@f465ad9093 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3adc45e88cbb237e. Report an issue: GitHub.