gohugoio/hugo · error

failed to load CODEOWNERS: %w

Error message

failed to load CODEOWNERS: %w

What it means

When a CODEOWNERS file is configured/present, Hugo maps each content file to its owners via `codeownersForPage` during page construction so templates can use `.CodeOwners`. If parsing the CODEOWNERS file or matching the page's path fails, page creation stops with this wrapped error.

Source

Thrown at hugolib/page__new.go:95

		},
	}

	if ps.IsHome() && ps.PathInfo().IsLeafBundle() {
		msg := "Using %s in your content's root directory is usually incorrect for your home page. "
		msg += "You should use %s instead. If you don't rename this file, your home page will be "
		msg += "treated as a leaf bundle, meaning it won't be able to have any child pages or sections."
		ps.s.Log.Warnidf(constants.WarnHomePageIsLeafBundle, msg, ps.PathInfo().PathNoLeadingSlash(), strings.ReplaceAll(ps.PathInfo().PathNoLeadingSlash(), "index", "_index"))
	}

	if m.f != nil {
		gi, err := s.h.gitInfoForPage(ps)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to load Git data: %w", err)
		}
		ps.gitInfo = gi
		owners, err := s.h.codeownersForPage(ps)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to load CODEOWNERS: %w", err)
		}
		ps.codeowners = owners
	}

	ps.pageMenus = &pageMenus{p: ps}
	ps.PageMenusProvider = ps.pageMenus
	ps.GetPageProvider = pageSiteAdapter{s: s, p: ps}
	ps.GitInfoProvider = ps
	ps.TranslationsProvider = ps
	ps.ResourceDataProvider = newDataFunc(ps)
	ps.RawContentProvider = ps
	ps.ChildCareProvider = ps
	ps.TreeProvider = pageTree{p: ps}
	ps.Eqer = ps
	ps.TranslationKeyProvider = ps
	ps.ShortcodeInfoProvider = ps
	ps.AlternativeOutputFormatsProvider = ps

View on GitHub ↗ (pinned to 8a468df065)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped error to find the offending CODEOWNERS line and fix its pattern syntax (standard gitignore-style patterns plus owner handles).
2. Validate the file with a CODEOWNERS linter or GitHub's own validation view.
3. If codeowners data isn't wanted in the build, remove/rename the CODEOWNERS file from the build context.

# Verify CODEOWNERS parses before enabling codeowners support:
test -f CODEOWNERS || test -f .github/CODEOWNERS
# Check each non-comment line is '<pattern> <owner>...' with no stray tokens

if err := build(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "CODEOWNERS") {
        log.Println("fix CODEOWNERS syntax or remove the file / disable the feature")
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: A build where a `CODEOWNERS` file exists (repo root, `.github/`, or `docs/`) and the codeowners parser fails on it — malformed pattern lines, unreadable file, or an error resolving the page's filename against the ruleset in `newPageFromMeta` (hugolib/page__new.go:93-96).

Common situations: Hand-edited CODEOWNERS with syntax GitHub tolerates but the Go codeowners parser rejects; encoding issues (BOM, CRLF oddities); CODEOWNERS copied from another tool with unsupported pattern syntax; file permission problems in containers.

Related errors

• error processing file %q
• failed to parse file %q: %s
• error copying static files: %w
• error building site: %w
• failed to compile cache buster %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@8a468df065 (2026-07-31). Data as JSON: /data/errors/d0ff64db6fcbb1bf.json. Report an issue: GitHub ↗.