pnpm frozen lockfile missing or mismatch

May 15, 2026 · View on GitHub

Playbook ID: pnpm-lockfile-missing Category: build Severity: high Tags: pnpm, node, lockfile, dependency

What this failure means

pnpm failed because the lockfile is missing, out of sync, or was not committed. pnpm requires an exact lockfile reference for reproducible installs.

Common log signals

ERR_PNPM_FROZEN_LOCKFILE_CHANGED
pnpm-lock.yaml.*not in sync
lockfile.*missing
pnpm ERR!

Diagnosis

pnpm is stricter than npm and yarn about lockfile consistency. Common causes:

  • pnpm-lock.yaml was not committed to the repository.
  • The lockfile is out of sync with package.json (versions changed but lockfile not updated).
  • pnpm install was run locally but the updated lockfile was not pushed before CI.
  • CI is configured with --frozen-lockfile but the lockfile is stale.

The error appears as ERR_PNPM_FROZEN_LOCKFILE_CHANGED or similar pnpm validation errors.

Fix steps

  1. Ensure pnpm-lock.yaml is committed to the repository:

    git status pnpm-lock.yaml

  2. If pnpm-lock.yaml is missing, regenerate it locally:

    pnpm install
git add pnpm-lock.yaml
git commit -m "Update pnpm lockfile"
git push

  3. If the lockfile is out of sync with package.json, update it:

    pnpm install
git add pnpm-lock.yaml
git commit -m "Sync pnpm lockfile"
git push

  4. Verify the lockfile is in sync before re-running CI:

    pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

Validation

  • pnpm install --frozen-lockfile completes without errors.
  • git status shows no changes to pnpm-lock.yaml.
  • Re-run the CI job.

Likely files to inspect

  • pnpm-lock.yaml
  • package.json
  • .gitlab-ci.yml
  • .github/workflows/*.yml

Run Faultline

faultline analyze build.log
faultline explain pnpm-lockfile-missing
faultline workflow build.log --json --mode agent

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Generated from playbooks/bundled/log/build/pnpm-lockfile-missing.yaml. Do not edit directly — run make docs-generate.