Out of memory error on install from source using a dev container

[Robin Todd (rotodd)]

Following these instructions to install AutoGen Studio from source using a dev container, I get the following error on the yarn build step:

vscode ➜ /workspace $ cd frontend/
vscode ➜ /workspace/frontend $ yarn build
yarn run v1.22.22
$ gatsby clean && rm -rf ../autogenstudio/web/ui && PREFIX_PATH_VALUE='' gatsby build --prefix-paths && rsync -a --delete public/ ../autogenstudio/web/ui/
info Deleting .cache, public, /workspace/frontend/node_modules/.cache/babel-loader, /workspace/frontend/node_modules/.cache/terser-webpack-plugin
info Successfully deleted directories

success compile gatsby files - 1.970s
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
success load gatsby config - 0.057s
success load plugins - 0.391s
success onPreInit - 0.017s
success initialize cache - 0.038s
success copy gatsby files - 0.172s
success Compiling Gatsby Functions - 0.239s
success onPreBootstrap - 0.262s
success createSchemaCustomization - 0.025s
success Checking for changed pages - 0.007s
success source and transform nodes - 0.320s
info Writing GraphQL type definitions to /workspace/frontend/.cache/schema.gql
success building schema - 0.315s
success createPages - 0.004s
success createPagesStatefully - 0.283s
info Total nodes: 65, SitePage nodes: 12 (use --verbose for breakdown)
success Checking for changed pages - 0.002s
success onPreExtractQueries - 0.002s
success extract queries from components - 5.337s
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
warn File '.env.production' is missing. Using default values.
success write out redirect data - 0.095s
success Build manifest and related icons - 0.653s
success onPostBootstrap - 0.666s
info bootstrap finished - 12.073s
success write out requires - 0.013s
⠙ Building production JavaScript and CSS bundles
Killed
error Command failed with exit code 137.
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/run for documentation about this command.

Wondering if someone might be able to point me to the best way to resolve this? Thanks in advance!

[Aimish (aim1sh)]

Exit code 137 means the Gatsby/Node process was killed with SIGKILL. In this case the usual cause is the dev container reaching its memory limit; the repeated .env.production warnings are not the failure.

First, check the limit from inside the container:

free -h
cat /sys/fs/cgroup/memory.max

If the second command returns a number instead of max, that is the container's cgroup limit in bytes. You can also watch the container from the host with docker stats while the build runs.

The AutoGen Studio devcontainer configuration does not set its own memory limit, so the effective limit normally comes from Docker Desktop, WSL, Codespaces, or the host running the container. Increase that allocation and rebuild the devcontainer. I would use at least 6 GB for the container; 8 GB gives the Gatsby production build more headroom. In GitHub Codespaces, switch to a larger machine type. In Docker Desktop, increase Settings → Resources → Memory, then restart Docker and rebuild the container.

After increasing the limit, clean the partial build and give Node a bounded heap:

cd frontend
rm -rf .cache public
NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 yarn build

Keep the Node heap below the container's total memory limit because Gatsby, webpack workers, and the rest of the container also need memory. NODE_OPTIONS only changes Node's heap ceiling; it cannot compensate for a container that has too little RAM.

If it still exits 137, stop other containers and rerun while watching docker stats. Including the output of memory.max, node --version, and the peak memory shown by Docker would make the remaining cause much easier to identify.