Wrong working directory

What this failure means

A command ran in an unexpected working directory. Relative paths expected a specific directory layout that did not exist at the time of execution.

Symptoms

Faultline looks for one or more of these log fragments:

no such file or directory
cannot find the path specified
chdir
not a git repository
error: no such file
working directory not found
failed to change directory

Diagnosis

A command ran in an unexpected working directory. Relative paths expected a specific directory layout that did not exist at the time of execution.

Fix steps

1. Check the working-directory configuration in your CI workflow file.
2. Use absolute paths or $(pwd) references where possible.
3. Add ls -la before the failing step to confirm the directory contents.
4. Verify the repository structure matches what the workflow expects.

Validation

• Re-run the failing workflow step.
• Confirm the original failure signature for Wrong working directory is gone.

Why it matters

CI jobs sometimes change directory as part of a step but fail to restore the original directory, or a working-directory configuration in the workflow file points to a path that does not exist in the checked-out repository.

Prevention

• Use explicit working-directory steps rather than relying on implicit directory state.
• Document expected working directory requirements in step names or comments.
• Add a directory existence check at the start of jobs that depend on specific paths.
• Prefer commands anchored from the repository root in reusable scripts so directory assumptions are not duplicated across workflows.

How Faultline detects it

Use faultline explain working-directory to see the full playbook.

faultline analyze build.log
faultline explain working-directory

Generated from playbooks/bundled/log/build/working-directory.yaml. Do not edit directly.