Cannot install github.com/hashicorp/amazon anymore

[mjozefcz]

Overview of the Issue

We started getting CI issues today on building our images. Noticing:

Failed getting the "github.com/hashicorp/amazon" plugin:
2 errors occurred:
        * could not get sha256 checksum file for github.com/hashicorp/amazon version 1.8.1. Is the file present on the release and correctly named ? GET https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/releases/download/v1.8.1/packer-plugin-amazon_v1.8.1_SHA256SUMS: 404  []
        * could not install any compatible version of plugin "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"

Looks like all SHA256SUMS are gone from github.com and packer still installs plugin from github, even after this announcement [1].

Reproduction Steps

packer {
  required_plugins {
    amazon = {
      version = "= 1.8.1"
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"
    }
  }
}

Packer version

Packer v1.15.4

[1] https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/important-update-official-packer-plugin-distribution-moving-to-releases-hashicorp-com/75972

[mjozefcz]

More context - trace logs

2026/06/30 13:06:06 [INFO] Packer version: 1.15.4 [go1.25.11 darwin arm64]
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [INFO] PACKER_CONFIG env var not set; checking the default config file path
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [INFO] PACKER_CONFIG env var set; attempting to open config file: <HIDDEN>.packerconfig
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [WARN] Config file doesn't exist: <HIDDEN>/.packerconfig
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [INFO] Setting cache directory: <HIDDEN>.cache/packer
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [TRACE] init: plugingetter.ListInstallationsOptions{PluginDirectory:"<HIDDEN>/plugins", BinaryInstallationOptions:plugingetter.BinaryInstallationOptions{APIVersionMajor:"5", APIVersionMinor:"0", OS:"darwin", ARCH:"arm64", Ext:"", Checksummers:[]plugingetter.Checksummer{plugingetter.Checksummer{Type:"sha256", Hash:(*sha256.Digest)(0x14000bd0000)}}, ReleasesOnly:true}}
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [TRACE] listing potential installations for "github.com/hashicorp/amazon" that match "= 1.8.1". plugingetter.ListInstallationsOptions{PluginDirectory:"<HIDDEN>er/plugins", BinaryInstallationOptions:plugingetter.BinaryInstallationOptions{APIVersionMajor:"5", APIVersionMinor:"0", OS:"darwin", ARCH:"arm64", Ext:"", Checksummers:[]plugingetter.Checksummer{plugingetter.Checksummer{Type:"sha256", Hash:(*sha256.Digest)(0x14000bd0000)}}, ReleasesOnly:true}}
2026/06/30 13:06:06 Directory "/<HIDDEN>github.com/hashicorp" does not exist, the plugin likely isn't installed locally yet.
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [TRACE] Getting releases of github.com/hashicorp/amazon plugin from releases.hashicorp.com
2026/06/30 13:06:06 [ERR] Checkpoint error: Unknown status: 502
2026/06/30 13:06:16 [ERROR] Got error while trying getting data from releases.hashicorp.com, <nil>
2026/06/30 13:06:16 [TRACE] Getting releases of github.com/hashicorp/amazon plugin from github.com
2026/06/30 13:06:16 [WARNING] github-getter: no GitHub token set, if you intend to install plugins often, please set the PACKER_GITHUB_API_TOKEN env var
2026/06/30 13:06:16 [DEBUG] github-getter: getting "https://api.github.com/repos/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/git/matching-refs/tags"
2026/06/30 13:06:17 [DEBUG] will try to install: [1.8.1]
2026/06/30 13:06:17 [TRACE] fetching checksums file for the "1.8.1" version of the github.com/hashicorp/amazon plugin in "<HIDDEN>/.config/packer/plugins/github.com/hashicorp/amazon"...
2026/06/30 13:06:17 [TRACE] Getting sha256 of github.com/hashicorp/amazon plugin from github.com
2026/06/30 13:06:17 [DEBUG] github-getter: getting "https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/releases/download/v1.8.1/packer-plugin-amazon_v1.8.1_SHA256SUMS"
2026/06/30 13:06:17 [TRACE] failed requesting: *github.ErrorResponse. GET https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/releases/download/v1.8.1/packer-plugin-amazon_v1.8.1_SHA256SUMS: 404  []
2026/06/30 13:06:17 [TRACE] could not get sha256 checksum file for github.com/hashicorp/amazon version 1.8.1. Is the file present on the release and correctly named ? GET https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/releases/download/v1.8.1/packer-plugin-amazon_v1.8.1_SHA256SUMS: 404  []
        * could not get sha256 checksum file for github.com/hashicorp/amazon version 1.8.1. Is the file present on the release and correctly named ? GET https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/releases/download/v1.8.1/packer-plugin-amazon_v1.8.1_SHA256SUMS: 404  []
        * could not install any compatible version of plugin "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"

Failed getting the "github.com/hashicorp/amazon" plugin:
2 errors occurred:
        * could not get sha256 checksum file for github.com/hashicorp/amazon version 1.8.1. Is the file present on the release and correctly named ? GET https://github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/releases/download/v1.8.1/packer-plugin-amazon_v1.8.1_SHA256SUMS: 404  []
        * could not install any compatible version of plugin "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"


2026/06/30 13:06:17 [INFO] (telemetry) Finalizing.
2026/06/30 13:06:17 [WARN] (telemetry) Error finalizing report. This is safe to ignore. Unknown status: 502
2026/06/30 13:06:17 waiting for all plugin processes to complete...

[mmlb]

Also seeing this, though running packer init on laptop succeeds (after rm -rf ~/.config/packer/)

[mmlb]

Looks like you have 2026/06/30 13:06:06 [ERR] Checkpoint error: Unknown status: 502 and packer falls back to github releases. Just re-ran CI and was able to fetch the plugin.

[mjozefcz]

It started running now both on CI and local machine. Looks like some temporary issue in releases.hashicorp.com