Jitsi cannot be enabled after upgrading from 8.4.3 to 8.5.0 due to broken symlink in /tmp/apps-engine-temp/

[ymch]

Description:

After upgrading Rocket.Chat from 8.4.3 to 8.5.0, the Jitsi app cannot be
enabled. The root cause is a broken symlink at /tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime.

In 8.5.0, the deno-runtime/ directory was moved from the
@rocket.chat/apps-engine package to the @rocket.chat/apps package.
However, the symlink at /tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime still points
to the old path (@rocket.chat/apps-engine/deno-runtime), which no longer
exists, causing Deno to fail to load main.ts.

Old (broken) symlink target:
/opt/Rocket.Chat/programs/server/npm/node_modules/@rocket.chat/apps-engine/deno-runtime

Correct path (where main.ts actually exists in 8.5.0):
/opt/Rocket.Chat/programs/server/npm/node_modules/@rocket.chat/apps/deno-runtime/main.ts

Workaround:
Manually re-create the symlink to point to the correct path:

systemctl stop rocketchat
rm /tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime
ln -s /opt/Rocket.Chat/programs/server/npm/node_modules/@rocket.chat/apps/deno-runtime \
      /tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime
chown -h rocketchat:rocketchat /tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime
systemctl start rocketchat

After applying this workaround, Jitsi can be enabled successfully.
The symlink persists across service restarts (Apps-Engine does not
regenerate it on startup), so the workaround remains effective until
a fix is released.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install Rocket.Chat 8.4.3 via tar under /opt/Rocket.Chat and confirm
   Jitsi works correctly.
2. Upgrade to 8.5.0 by replacing the installation directory with the new
   tar archive and running npm install.
3. Start the Rocket.Chat service.
4. Go to Administration > Apps > Marketplace and attempt to enable Jitsi.

Expected behavior:

Jitsi can be enabled without errors, as it was in 8.4.3.

Actual behavior:

Enabling Jitsi fails. The following error is recorded in /var/log/messages:

Subprocess stderr error: Module not found
"file:///tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime/main.ts".

The symlink /tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime points to
/opt/Rocket.Chat/programs/server/npm/node_modules/@rocket.chat/apps-engine/deno-runtime,
which does not exist in 8.5.0.

Server Setup Information:

• Version of Rocket.Chat Server: 8.5.0 (confirmed working on 8.4.3)
• License Type: Community
• Number of Users: 20
• Operating System: Rocky Linux 9.7
• Deployment Method: tar (extracted to /opt/Rocket.Chat)
• Number of Running Instances: 1
• DB Replicaset Oplog: enabled
• NodeJS Version: v22.22.3
• MongoDB Version: 8.2.11 / wiredTiger

Additional context:

The @rocket.chat/apps-engine package under
/opt/Rocket.Chat/programs/server/npm/node_modules/@rocket.chat/apps-engine/
does not contain a deno-runtime/ directory in 8.5.0.
The directory listing of that package is as follows:

CHANGELOG.md
definition/
.deno-cache/
.gitignore
node_modules/
package.json
README.md
src/
tsconfig.json
tsconfig-lint.json
turbo.json
typedoc.json

main.ts is only found at:
/opt/Rocket.Chat/programs/server/npm/node_modules/@rocket.chat/apps/deno-runtime/main.ts

This suggests that deno-runtime/ was relocated from @rocket.chat/apps-engine
to @rocket.chat/apps in 8.5.0, but the symlink creation logic in
Apps-Engine was not updated accordingly.

Relevant logs:

Subprocess stderr error: Module not found
"file:///tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime/main.ts".

[coderabbitai]

🔗 Related PRs

#40643 - regression: apps semver validation broke with pre-release identifier [closed]

---

📝 Issue Planner

_{Check the box below or use the @coderabbitai plan command to generate an implementation plan and prompts that you can use with your favorite coding assistant.}

• Create Plan

---

🧪 Issue enrichment is currently in open beta.

You can configure auto-planning by selecting labels in the issue_enrichment configuration.

To disable automatic issue enrichment, add the following to your .coderabbit.yaml:

issue_enrichment:
  auto_enrich:
    enabled: false

💬 Have feedback or questions? Drop into our discord!

[NihalShinde4933]

Hey maintainers i would like to take upon this issue, can i?

[dsaicharan072-cmyk]

Hey, I'll take this one.

The issue is pretty clear — the symlink at /tmp/apps-engine-temp/deno-runtime is still pointing to the old path inside @rocket.chat/apps-engine, but that directory doesn't exist anymore in 8.5.0 since deno-runtime/ moved to @rocket.chat/apps. So Deno just fails to find main.ts.

Here's what I'm planning to do:

• Track down where the symlink gets created in Apps-Engine and update the target path to @rocket.chat/apps/deno-runtime
• Try to avoid hardcoding the path altogether — ideally resolve it dynamically from the package location so this doesn't silently break again if things move around in a future release
• Also handle the stale symlink case on upgrade, since the old one hangs around and isn't regenerated on startup
• Maybe throw a better error if the symlink target is missing, because the current Module not found from Deno gives basically no hint about what's actually wrong

Will reproduce the 8.4.3 → 8.5.0 upgrade locally first to make sure I'm not missing anything, then put up a PR.

Let me know if someone else is already on this!