Node.js Error EMFILE: Too many open files

Critical↻ Retryable · exponential backoffRuntime

TL;DR · 10-second read

The process hit its file-descriptor limit (ulimit -n), from unclosed streams, unbounded parallel fs calls or file watchers. Close handles, limit concurrency, or raise the limit.

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What you see · exact log / response

Error: EMFILE: too many open files, watch '/app/src'
    at FSWatcher.<computed> (node:internal/fs/watchers:247:19) {
  errno: -24,
  syscall: 'watch',
  code: 'EMFILE',
  filename: '/app/src'
}

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Last verified 2026-10-09 · Source: POSIX errno + Node.js ERR_* codes (doc/api/errors.md) · Official docs ↗ · ~6,600 searches/mo