Improve craft tool dev experience with destructive mode
Metadata
Current evaluation
Root-run destructive packing leaves root-owned lifecycle directories, blocking later non-root packing; the UX request remains untriaged with no selected solution.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The report gives an exact root-then-user reproduction ending in PermissionError at prime/meta/snap.yaml, confirming a real developer workflow failure. However, the issue has no labels, assignee, or maintainer response and offers three alternative outcomes rather than a chosen design; craft-application#974 added only a generic non-root warning.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
38
Quick Win:
10
Complexity:
61
Confidence:
93
Actionability:
65
Issue body
### What needs to get done
The development iteration process should be made easier for creating craft tools.
Recent changes like #974 encourage avoiding this behavior, which is good for end-users, but something to ease this rough edge for development of the craft tools could be helpful.
Some proposed solutions could be:
- Caches scoped by UID when using destructive mode
- A better error message when attempting to run `craft clean --destructive-mode` in this state
- A better error message when attempting to access any of these directories with "bad" permissions
### Why it needs to get done
For local development, packing in destructive mode can sometimes be useful. Packing as non-root may, at times, be the easiest (and safest) way to test certain features in development.
The following is the result of `snapcraft init` followed by `sudo snapcraft pack --destructive-mode`:
```
$ ls -la
total 72
drwxr-xr-x 10 testing root 4096 Feb 17 20:12 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Feb 17 19:52 ..
drwxrwxr-x 3 testing testing 4096 Feb 17 19:53 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 17 19:55 .craft
drwxrwxr-x 3 testing testing 4096 Feb 17 19:53 .local
-rw-r--r-- 1 testing testing 0 Feb 17 19:55 .sudo_as_admin_successful
-rw------- 1 testing testing 874 Feb 17 19:54 .viminfo
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 17 20:12 overlay
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Feb 17 20:12 parts
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Feb 17 20:12 prime
drwx------ 4 testing testing 4096 Feb 17 19:56 snap
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Feb 17 20:12 stage
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 28672 Feb 17 20:12 testing_0.1_amd64.snap
```
If the tool is then used like `snapcraft pack --destructive-mode`, then I get:
```
2026-02-17 20:12:41.824 snapcraft internal error: PermissionError(13, 'Permission denied')
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 Traceback (most recent call last):
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_application/application.py", line 663, in run
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 return_code = self._run_inner()
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/snapcraft/application.py", line 183, in _run_inner
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 return_code = super()._run_inner()
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_application/application.py", line 640, in _run_inner
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 return_code = dispatcher.run() or os.EX_OK
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_cli/dispatcher.py", line 564, in run
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 return self._loaded_command.run(self._parsed_command_args)
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_application/commands/base.py", line 222, in run
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 result = self._run(parsed_args, **kwargs) or result
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/snapcraft/commands/lifecycle.py", line 74, in _run
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 super()._run(parsed_args)
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_application/commands/lifecycle.py", line 620, in _run
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 return self._run_real(parsed_args=parsed_args, step_name=step_name)
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_application/commands/lifecycle.py", line 439, in _run_real
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 self._run_post_prime_steps()
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_application/commands/lifecycle.py", line 270, in _run_post_prime_steps
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 self._services.package.write_metadata(self.services.get("lifecycle").prime_dir)
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/snapcraft/services/package.py", line 153, in write_metadata
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 self.metadata.to_yaml_file(meta_dir / "snap.yaml")
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/16570/lib/python3.12/site-packages/craft_application/models/base.py", line 93, in to_yaml_file
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 with path.open("wt") as file:
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 File "/snap/snapcraft/current/usr/lib/python3.12/pathlib.py", line 1015, in open
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 return io.open(self, mode, buffering, encoding, errors, newline)
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-17 20:12:41.825 PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/testing/prime/meta/snap.yaml'
```
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
38
Quick Win:
10
Complexity:
61
Confidence:
93
Actionability:
65
|
needs triage | Root-run destructive packing leaves root-owned lifecycle directories, blocking later non-root packing; the UX request remains untriaged with no selected solution. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
13
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
70
Actionability:
70
|
needs triage | Feature request to improve dev experience with destructive mode: UID-scoped caches and better error messages. Untriaged, no maintainer engagement. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
18
Staleness:
55
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Feature request from maintainer bepri to smooth destructive-mode dev workflow: after sudo pack leaves root-owned dirs, non-root pack crashes with raw PermissionError. Proposes UID-scoped caches or better permission error messages. Open 195 days, no labels, no comments. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
85
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Proposal to improve developer experience for craft tools using destructive mode by addressing permission errors and suggesting UID-scoped caches or better error messages. Currently unlabelled and inactive for 154 days. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
65
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Feature request to improve developer experience when using destructive mode in craft tools, addressing permission errors and cache scoping. Currently unlabelled and awaiting maintainer review after 141 days of inactivity. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
craft-application#974
(confidence 99%)
Merged PR 4b213f68 warns when destructive commands run as non-root, but does not prevent root-owned artifacts or diagnose the reported permission failure.
Related issues
No related issues found above the similarity threshold.