SST errors masked by `RangeError: Invalid string length` when secrets or resources are misconfigured

[55Cancri]

Description

When SST encounters certain errors (particularly missing secrets or AWS permission issues), the actual error message is hidden and users instead see:

RangeError: Invalid string length
    at markNodeModules (node:internal/util/inspect:1613:21)
    at formatError (node:internal/util/inspect:1747:18)
    ...
    at Object.defaultErrorMessage (.sst/platform/node_modules/@pulumi/cmd/run/error.ts:28:21)

This makes debugging very difficult because the actual error (e.g., "Secret EMAIL not set") is never shown.

Root Cause

This is actually a bug in Pulumi's error handling code. I've filed an issue there:

• Pulumi issue: [link]

The bug is in @pulumi/pulumi/cmd/run/error.ts where util.inspect(err, { colors: true }) is called without error handling. AWS SDK errors (commonly triggered by SST) contain large metadata objects that cause util.inspect to crash.

Reproduction Steps

1. Create a new SST project with an alert system that links to a secret:

   // infra/secrets.ts
   export const myEmail = new sst.Secret("EMAIL");
   
   // infra/alerts.ts
   alertQueue.subscribe({
     link: [myEmail],  // This will fail if EMAIL secret isn't set
     // ...
   });

2. Do NOT set the secret:

   # Skip this step intentionally
   # sst secret set EMAIL your@email.com --stage dev

3. Run sst dev or sst deploy

4. Instead of "Secret EMAIL not set", you get RangeError: Invalid string length

Environment

• SST: 3.17.25
• Node.js: v24.11.1
• OS: macOS arm64

Workaround

Until Pulumi fixes this upstream, you can:

1. Check .sst/log/sst.log for the actual error
2. Use this debug script to capture and parse Pulumi's event logs: [link to gist or script]

Suggested SST Improvement

While waiting for Pulumi to fix this, SST could:

1. Document this known issue
2. Add better pre-flight checks for common issues (missing secrets)
3. Consider patching Pulumi's error handler as a post-install step

[darrenhinde]

Thanks for this write up, this is effecting us as well.