CI Step "Killed" Exit Code 137 (OOM)

By Daniel Zoghalchali·Latchkey

Exit code 137 is 128 + 9, meaning the process received SIGKILL. On a memory-limited runner that is almost always the out-of-memory killer terminating the heaviest process.

What this error means

A step ends abruptly with Killed and the runner reports exit code 137. There is rarely a stack trace because SIGKILL cannot be caught. Re-running on a larger runner usually passes unchanged.

Killed
##[error] Process completed with exit code 137.

Common causes

The job exceeded the runner memory ceiling

A compile, bundler, test suite, or data load spiked past available RAM, so the kernel OOM killer terminated the largest process with SIGKILL.

A container memory limit is too low

When the job runs with --memory/-m set, exceeding that limit triggers the same kill at exit 137 even with free host RAM.

How to fix it

Give the job more memory

1. Run on a larger runner with more RAM.
2. Raise or remove an explicit container --memory limit if one is set.
3. Cap language heaps below the ceiling (NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096, JVM -Xmx).

Confirm it was memory, then reduce peak usage

Check the kernel log for the OOM event, then lower the high-water mark.

dmesg -T | grep -i -E 'killed process|out of memory'
make -j2   # instead of -j$(nproc)

How to prevent it

• Right-size runners for memory-heavy builds.
• Set language heap limits relative to runner RAM.
• Watch peak memory in CI to catch growth early.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation