Quick summary
Description
After installing project dependencies with pnpm, WordPress Studio is no longer able to start the site.
The startup process fails with the following error:
CliCommandError: [Last error message] Failed to start WordPress server: spawn E2BIG
[Base message] Failed to start site
[Exit code] 1
Possible cause
My project is a WordPress plugin that uses pnpm. After installing dependencies, the project contains a very large node_modules directory.
My suspicion is that WordPress Studio is attempting to process or pass too many file paths when starting the site, eventually hitting the operating system's argument size limit (E2BIG / ARG_MAX).
It might be worth excluding node_modules from any startup or synchronization process if it is currently being scanned or passed to a child process.
Environment
- OS: linux mint
- Package manager: pnpm
- Project type: WordPress plugin
Steps to reproduce
- Create or open a WordPress plugin project in WordPress Studio.
- Install the project dependencies using
pnpm install.
- Start the site from WordPress Studio.
- The site fails to start with
spawn E2BIG.
What you expected to happen
The site should start normally regardless of the size of the project's node_modules directory.
What actually happened
WordPress Studio fails to start the site and reports:
Impact
All
Available workarounds?
No but the app is still usable
Platform
No response
Logs or notes
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.452Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Iniciando daemon del proceso…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.454Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Cargando sitio…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.455Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Iniciando el servidor proxy HTTP…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.457Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Agregando dominio al archivo de hosts…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.457Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Configurando la integración con SQLite, si es necesario…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.458Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Iniciando el servidor de WordPress…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.458Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Checking PHP 8.3 binary…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.460Z][info][main] [CLI - cbe422a8-6225-4dc4-a0a3-434dd80c7c55] Iniciando el servidor de WordPress…
[2026-07-06T09:22:29.870Z][erro][main] Error occurred in handler for 'startServer': CliCommandError: [Last error message] Error al iniciar el servidor de WordPress: spawn E2BIG
[Base message] Failed to start site
[Exit code] 1
Quick summary
Description
After installing project dependencies with
pnpm, WordPress Studio is no longer able to start the site.The startup process fails with the following error:
Possible cause
My project is a WordPress plugin that uses
pnpm. After installing dependencies, the project contains a very largenode_modulesdirectory.My suspicion is that WordPress Studio is attempting to process or pass too many file paths when starting the site, eventually hitting the operating system's argument size limit (
E2BIG/ARG_MAX).It might be worth excluding
node_modulesfrom any startup or synchronization process if it is currently being scanned or passed to a child process.Environment
Steps to reproduce
pnpm install.spawn E2BIG.What you expected to happen
The site should start normally regardless of the size of the project's
node_modulesdirectory.What actually happened
WordPress Studio fails to start the site and reports:
Impact
All
Available workarounds?
No but the app is still usable
Platform
No response
Logs or notes