Pulumi "update failed" in CI

Pulumi finished the update with at least one failed resource operation and reports "update failed" as the summary. The actionable message is the per-resource error printed just above it.

What this error means

A pulumi up step ends with "error: update failed" after one or more resources show a red "failed" or "error:" line in the update output.

pulumi

  aws:s3:Bucket app-bucket **creating failed** error: creating S3 Bucket:
    BucketAlreadyExists: The requested bucket name is not available.
error: update failed

Common causes

A resource operation was rejected by the provider

The cloud API returned an error (name taken, quota exceeded, invalid argument) for a specific resource, failing the whole update.

A dependency of a failed resource cannot proceed

Downstream resources that depend on the failed one are skipped, and the overall update is marked failed.

How to fix it

Read the per-resource error and fix it

Find the resource line marked failed in the update output.
Address the specific provider error (rename, raise quota, fix arguments).
Re-run pulumi up to continue.

Preview before applying to catch it earlier

Run a preview so predictable failures surface before a real update partially applies.

Terminal

pulumi preview --diff

How to prevent it

Run pulumi preview in CI before pulumi up on protected branches.
Handle provider constraints (unique names, quotas) in the program.
Keep resource arguments valid and provider versions current.