Skip to content

[Fix] Move scaffolded project to its final directory before installing deps in app init #7600

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
craigmichaelmartin wants to merge 2 commits into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
+34 −8
Open

[Fix] Move scaffolded project to its final directory before installing deps in app init #7600

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
2 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
45b1884
[Fix] Move scaffolded project to its final directory before installin…
craigmichaelmartin May 21, 2026
36deafe
Clean up partial project on init failure
craigmichaelmartin May 22, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
5 changes: 5 additions & 0 deletions .changeset/fix-init-install-in-place.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
---
'@shopify/app': patch
---

Fix `shopify app init` leaving dangling `node_modules` symlinks on Windows when using `pnpm` (and similarly affected package managers). The scaffolded project is now moved to its final directory before dependencies are installed, so package-manager-managed symlinks/junctions resolve to the final location instead of the temporary scaffold path.
37 changes: 29 additions & 8 deletions packages/app/src/cli/services/init/init.ts
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import {
mkdir,
moveFile,
readFile,
rmdir,
writeFile,
} from '@shopify/cli-kit/node/fs'
import {joinPath, normalizePath} from '@shopify/cli-kit/node/path'
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -170,32 +171,52 @@ async function init(options: InitOptions) {
})
}

// Move the scaffolded template into its final directory BEFORE installing
// dependencies. pnpm (and other package managers) create absolute-path
// junctions/symlinks on Windows, so installing in the temp dir and then
// moving the tree orphans every link under node_modules/.pnpm/*.
let outputDirectoryCreated = false
tasks.push({
title: 'Preparing project directory',
task: async () => {
await ensureAppDirectoryIsAvailable(outputDirectory, hyphenizedName)
outputDirectoryCreated = true
await moveFile(templateScaffoldDir, outputDirectory)
},
})
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

@isaacroldan isaacroldan May 22, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

so the initial reasoning of moving the template AFTER installing dependencies is to prevent leaving an app in a bad state if the installing fails.

For instance the cleanup and initializeGitRepository tasks wouldn't be executed in that case.

We should take into account that case, either by deleting the app folder if something fails, or with clear instructions to the user? not sure.

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor Author

@craigmichaelmartin craigmichaelmartin May 22, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Good call — switched to the "delete on failure" approach in 36deafe. If any task after the move fails (install, cleanup, or git init), the partial project at outputDirectory is removed before the error propagates, so we're back to the original "no half-baked project on disk" behavior.

let outputDirectoryCreated = false
tasks.push({
  title: 'Preparing project directory',
  task: async () => {
    await ensureAppDirectoryIsAvailable(outputDirectory, hyphenizedName)
    outputDirectoryCreated = true
    await moveFile(templateScaffoldDir, outputDirectory)
  },
})
// ...install / cleanup / git init...
try {
  await renderTasks(tasks)
} catch (error) {
  if (outputDirectoryCreated) {
    await rmdir(outputDirectory).catch(() => {})
  }
  throw error
}

The flag is set right after ensureAppDirectoryIsAvailable passes, so a partial moveFile is also cleaned up. The .catch(() => {}) on rmdir is so cleanup errors don't mask the original task error.


tasks.push(
{
title: `Installing dependencies with ${packageManager}`,
task: async () => {
await getDeepInstallNPMTasks({from: templateScaffoldDir, packageManager})
await getDeepInstallNPMTasks({from: outputDirectory, packageManager})
},
},
{
title: 'Cleaning up',
task: async () => {
await cleanup(templateScaffoldDir, packageManager)
await cleanup(outputDirectory, packageManager)
},
},
{
title: 'Initializing a Git repository...',
task: async () => {
await initializeGitRepository(templateScaffoldDir)
await initializeGitRepository(outputDirectory)
},
},
)

await renderTasks(tasks)

// Ensure the app directory is available before moving the template scaffold
await ensureAppDirectoryIsAvailable(outputDirectory, hyphenizedName)
await moveFile(templateScaffoldDir, outputDirectory)
try {
await renderTasks(tasks)
} catch (error) {
// If a task failed after the project was moved to its final directory,
// remove the partial project so the user isn't left with a half-baked
// scaffold (no node_modules, no cleanup, no git init).
if (outputDirectoryCreated) {
await rmdir(outputDirectory).catch(() => {})
}
throw error
}
})

let app: OrganizationApp
Expand Down
Loading