zed-industries/zed · error · anyhow::Error

failed to resolve writable path `{}`{}

Error message

failed to resolve writable path `{}`{}

What it means

Resolving a writable path for the WSL sandbox failed: the WSL-side helper command to canonicalize the path exited non-zero (helper not provisioned, distro missing, or path invalid), so the grant cannot be resolved.

Source

Thrown at crates/sandbox/src/windows_wsl.rs:395

        .next()
        .context("bug: missing resolved writable path")?
        .context("bug: required writable path resolved as missing")?;
    let (channel, version) = wsl_zed_release;
    let helper = ensure_wsl_zed_helper(&wsl_exe, None, &channel, &version).await?;
    let output = run_wsl_command(
        &wsl_exe,
        None,
        [
            "--exec",
            helper.as_str(),
            crate::WSL_SANDBOX_RESOLVE_FLAG,
            translated.as_str(),
        ],
        "resolve a sandbox write grant",
    )
    .await?;
    if !output.status.success() {
        return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
            "failed to resolve writable path `{}`{}",
            requested.display(),
            command_failure_details(output.status.code(), &output.stderr)
        ));
    }
    let stdout = String::from_utf8(output.stdout)
        .context("WSL sandbox helper returned a non-UTF-8 canonical path")?;
    parse_canonical_grant_output(&stdout)
}

/// Strip the `\\?\` verbatim prefix that `std::fs::canonicalize` prepends to a
/// Windows drive path, leaving `\\?\UNC\...` untouched (it is not a drive path,
/// and is rejected by the caller). We persist and display the plain `C:\...`
/// spelling so a non-junction grant compares equal to the requested path.
fn strip_windows_verbatim_prefix(path: PathBuf) -> PathBuf {
    let text = path.to_string_lossy();
    match text.strip_prefix(r"\\?\") {
        Some(rest) if !rest.starts_with("UNC\\") => PathBuf::from(rest),

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

1. Ensure WSL is installed and the distro is running
2. Install curl inside the WSL distro so the helper can be provisioned
3. Check networking from WSL and retry

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/sandbox/src/windows_wsl.rs:395 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@f4178619ac (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/99310bdceb35e6d0. Report an issue: GitHub.