website: fix build failure when popular issues data is absent

[devin-lai]

Problem

On a fresh checkout, npm run build (and npm start) fail to compile:

× Cannot find module '@site/static/data/popular-issues.json' for matched aliased key '@site'
[ERROR] Client bundle compiled with errors therefore further build is impossible.

src/components/GitHubIssues.tsx loads @site/static/data/popular-issues.json via require(). The webpack bundle resolves that import at build time, so the try/catch around it cannot prevent the failure. The file is produced by npm run fetch-popular-issues (which needs a GitHub token) and is gitignored (static/data/*), so it does not exist after a clean clone.

CI builds succeed only because the workflow runs fetch-popular-issues before build. The local workflow documented in website/README.md (npm start / npm run build) does not mention that step, so a new contributor following the docs hits the error — on the page that renders the Contribute doc, no less.

Fix

Add scripts/ensure-popular-issues.mjs, wired as prestart/prebuild, that writes an empty [] fallback when the file is missing. When the file already exists (CI, or after a manual fetch) it is left untouched, so real data and CI behavior are unchanged. GitHubIssues already renders an empty state when there are no issues.

Verification

• Fresh state (no static/data/): npm run build failed before, succeeds after.
• With existing data present: the file is not overwritten.
• npm run typecheck and npm run lint pass.

Reproduce

cd website
npm install
npm run build   # fails on main, succeeds with this change

[github-actions]

Preview: https://devin-lai.github.io/openarm

See https://github.com/enactic/openarm/blob/main/website/README.md#pull-request-and-preview how to configure preview on fork.

[kou]

Does this really happen?

We ignore @site/static/data/popular-issues.json not found error:

openarm/website/src/components/GitHubIssues.tsx

Lines 108 to 113 in 5d878b6

	try {
	return require('@site/static/data/popular-issues.json');
	} catch (_) {
	// If you need popular issues, please run: npm run fetch-popular-issues
	return [];
	}

[devin-lai]

Does this really happen?

We ignore @site/static/data/popular-issues.json not found error:

openarm/website/src/components/GitHubIssues.tsx

Lines 108 to 113 in 5d878b6

	try {
	return require('@site/static/data/popular-issues.json');
	} catch (_) {
	// If you need popular issues, please run: npm run fetch-popular-issues
	return [];
	}

Yeah, I hit it on a fresh checkout. The require('@site/static/data/popular-issues.json') is resolved at build time, so the missing file becomes a bundler error before the try/catch can return [].

Repro:
cd website
mv static/data/popular-issues.json /tmp/
npx docusaurus build

It exits with Cannot find module '@site/static/data/popular-issues.json'
Since static/data/* is gitignored and the file only exists after fetch-popular-issues, an empty [] is enough to unblock the build. No worries if you still can’t repro — feel free to ignore this if it’s too minor

[kou]

@otegami Could you check this case?