Error: NodejsNpmEsbuildBuilder:EsbuildBundle - Esbuild Failed in GitHub Actions

[aleguern]

Hello,

I am encountering an error while using Sam build on GitHub Actions with the AWS-actions/setup-sam. Strangely, the build process works perfectly fine on my local machine using Sam build. However, when the same build process is executed on GitHub Actions, I receive the following error:

"Error: NodejsNpmEsbuildBuilder:EsbuildBundle - Esbuild Failed: Cannot find esbuild. esbuild must be installed on the host machine to use this feature. It is recommended to be installed on the PATH, but can also be included as a project dependency."

I have double-checked that esbuild is installed on my local machine and even included it as a project dependency, which allows me to perform successful builds locally. However, the error only occurs within the GitHub Actions environment.

I kindly request your assistance and guidance in troubleshooting this perplexing issue. If anyone has encountered a similar situation or possesses insights into potential solutions, I would greatly appreciate your input.

Thank you for your support.

[hoffa]

Per the error message:

esbuild must be installed on the host machine to use this feature.

Do you have eslint installed on the machine running the workflow?

[aleguern]

Yes I did install it with npm i -g esbuild, is there a different way to do this ?

[hoffa]

So to be clear, esbuild is installed in the GitHub Actions environment (not only on development machine), and is in the PATH (i.e. you can use esbuild and it'll call the executable correctly)?

[aleguern]

I run npm i -g esbuild and then run esbuild --version it displays the correct version 0.18.6

[hoffa]

Can you include the relevant parts of your GitHub workflow? Specifically, where eslint and SAM CLI is installed, and where SAM CLI is called.

[aleguern]

jobs:
  build-and-package:
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - run: npm install
      - run: npm i -g esbuild
      - run: esbuild --version
      - uses: aws-actions/setup-sam@v2
        with:
          use-installer: true
      - name: Build resources
        run: sam build --template ${SAM_TEMPLATE} --use-container

[hoffa]

With --use-container the project will be built in a container, so whatever is installed on the host won't be available in it. It should work if you make esbuild a project dependency, so that it's picked up in the container as well.

[aleguern]

Thanks for your advice, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do, could you tell me how to do this ?

[hoffa]

Try adding it as a dependency to your package.json.

[aleguern]

That’s already what I did and not working, I tried adding it to dependencies and devDependencies.

[hoffa]

Interesting; can you share your package.json? And project structure as well if possible (to ensure it's picking up the correct package.json). We haven't been able to reproduce the issue.

[mildaniel]

Adding some extra context here. I was unable to reproduce this issue in GitHub actions. My setup looks like this and runs successfully

├── README.md
├── events
│   └── event.json
├── hello-world
│   ├── app.ts
│   ├── jest.config.ts
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── tests
│   │   └── unit
│   │       └── test-handler.test.ts
│   └── tsconfig.json
├── samconfig.toml
└── template.yaml

package.json

{
  "name": "hello_world",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "hello world sample for NodeJS",
  "main": "app.js",
 ...
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "esbuild": "^0.14.14"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
...
  }
}

and the workflow

name: Build

on: push

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build esbuild project
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: 18
      - uses: aws-actions/setup-sam@v2
        with:
          use-installer: true
      - run: sam build -u

I noticed you also specify the template. Can you confirm the template flag is pointing to the correct file?

[aleguern]

I found the bug I'm sorry, it seems I forgot to install esbuild dependency at the lambda level, it was only installed at the root lebel.

[hoffa]

No worries! Thanks for the update; good you found the issue.