Docker "failed to create shim task: OCI runtime create failed: executable file not found"

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

containerd’s shim could not start the container because the command it was told to run does not exist on PATH inside the image. The entrypoint/CMD names a binary the image does not have.

What this error means

A docker run/compose up fails with failed to create shim task: OCI runtime create failed: ... exec: "<cmd>": executable file not found in $PATH. The container never starts because its command cannot be resolved.

Error response from daemon: failed to create shim task: OCI runtime create
failed: runc create failed: unable to start container process: exec:
"yarn": executable file not found in $PATH: unknown

Diagnose it: read the container, not the compose file

A container that exits immediately in CI has almost always logged the reason and then been cleaned up. Capture the logs and the exit code before changing configuration.

# why did it stop?
docker ps -a --format '{{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Image}}'
docker logs <container> 2>&1 | tail -50
docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}} {{.State.OOMKilled}} {{.State.Error}}'

Common causes

The CMD/ENTRYPOINT binary is not installed

The image lacks the named tool (e.g. yarn, python, a custom script) because it was never installed in the final stage or was dropped in a multi-stage build.

The binary is not on PATH

The executable exists but lives outside the directories in $PATH, so the shim cannot find it by bare name.

A typo or wrong shell form in CMD

A misspelled command, or exec-form CMD pointing at a path that does not exist, resolves to nothing the runtime can exec.

How to fix it

Confirm the command exists in the final image

Open a shell in the image and check the binary resolves.

docker run --rm -it --entrypoint sh myorg/api:1.4.2 -c 'command -v yarn || echo missing'

Install the binary or fix the command/PATH

Make sure the tool is present in the final stage and on PATH.

# install in the final stage, not just a builder stage
RUN corepack enable && corepack prepare yarn@stable --activate
# or reference an absolute path / fix the typo in CMD
CMD ["/usr/local/bin/yarn", "start"]

How to prevent it

• Install runtime binaries in the final stage, not only in builder stages.
• Smoke-test images with docker run --rm <image> before publishing.
• Use absolute paths or verify PATH for entrypoint commands.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• Docker documentation
• Docker build cache
• GitHub Actions documentation