Skip to main content
Why it happens: The binary was installed to ~/.local/bin but that directory is not in your shell’s PATH.Fix: Add ~/.local/bin to your PATH for the current session:
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
To make this permanent, add the same line to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile):
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
You can verify the binary is present and the path is correct by running:
ls ~/.local/bin/progflow
which progflow
Error message:
No active flow found
Why it happens: You ran progflow off without specifying a name, and Progflow couldn’t find any active lockfile in ~/.config/flow/. This means no flow was started in this session, or the lockfile was already removed.Fix: Specify the flow name explicitly:
progflow off <name>
If you’re not sure which flows are configured, list them:
progflow list
Error message:
No lock file found for flow 'name'
Why it happens: You tried to stop a flow that was never started in the current session. Progflow requires a lockfile (written by progflow on) to know which processes to terminate.Fix: If you want to start and then stop the flow, run:
progflow on <name>
progflow off <name>
If you just want to clean up state without starting the flow, you can safely ignore this error — there is nothing running to stop.
Error message:
Directory does not exist: /path/to/dir
Why it happens: The directory field in your flow’s config points to a path that no longer exists. This typically happens when a project directory is moved, renamed, or deleted after the flow was created.Fix: Update the flow config with the correct path using progflow edit:
progflow edit <name>
This opens ~/.config/flow/<name>.json in your $EDITOR. Update the "directory" field to the correct path and save.Alternatively, edit the file directly:
nano ~/.config/flow/<name>.json
Error message:
No editor set. Set $EDITOR or $VISUAL
Why it happens: You ran progflow edit <name> but neither the $EDITOR nor the $VISUAL environment variable is set. Progflow uses these standard variables to know which editor to open for editing config files.Fix: Set $EDITOR for the current session:
export EDITOR=nano
To make this permanent, add it to your shell profile:
echo 'export EDITOR=nano' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
Then retry:
progflow edit <name>
Why it happens: Progflow uses xdg-open as its primary URL opener on Linux. If xdg-utils is not installed, the call fails silently and you may see:
Warning: Failed to open URL: https://example.com
Hint: Install xdg-utils: sudo apt install xdg-utils
Fix: Install xdg-utils:
# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install xdg-utils

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install xdg-utils

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S xdg-utils
If xdg-open is installed but URLs still don’t open, check that a default browser is configured:
xdg-settings get default-web-browser
Progflow also tries gio open, firefox, chromium, and brave as fallbacks if xdg-open fails.
Why it happens: The editor command stored in editorCmd failed to launch. Progflow prints a warning but continues:
Warning: Failed to spawn editor 'code .': No such file or directory
This usually means the editor binary is not in PATH, or the command is written incorrectly.Fix: First, test the command manually in your terminal:
code .
If that fails, check that the editor is installed and that its binary is in your PATH. Then update the flow config:
progflow edit <name>
Set "editorCmd" to the exact command that works in your terminal, for example "nvim .", "code .", or "nano .".
Why it happens: The install script builds Progflow from source using cargo. If Rust is not installed or the version is too old (Progflow requires Rust 1.70+), the build will fail.Symptoms:
error: package `progflow` cannot be built because it requires rustc 1.70.0 or newer
or:
[ERROR] Build failed
Fix: Check your Rust version:
rustc --version
If Rust is missing or outdated, install the latest stable version via rustup:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env
On Termux:
pkg install rust
Then re-run the installer:
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Rehanasharmin/Progflow/master/install.sh | bash
You also need a C compiler (gcc or clang) and make. On Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us