GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

`config-dependencies add` requires exactly one file path arg

Error message

`config-dependencies add` requires exactly one file path argument

What it means

`skaffold inspect config-dependencies add` registers a config dependency and needs exactly one positional argument: the path to the dependency file. The Args validator rejects anything other than exactly one argument, logging the error via olog before returning it.

Source

Thrown at cmd/skaffold/app/cmd/inspect_config_dependencies.go:47

	olog "github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold/v2/pkg/skaffold/output/log"
)

func cmdConfigDependencies() *cobra.Command {
	return NewCmd("config-dependencies").
		WithDescription("Interact with skaffold config dependency definitions.").
		WithCommands(cmdConfigDependenciesAdd())
}

func cmdConfigDependenciesAdd() *cobra.Command {
	return NewCmd("add").
		WithDescription("Add config dependencies").
		WithExample("Add config dependency defined in `dependency.json`.", "inspect config-dependencies add dependency.json -f skaffold.yaml").
		WithFlagAdder(cmdConfigDependenciesAddFlags).
		WithArgs(func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			if len(args) != 1 {
				errMsg := "`config-dependencies add` requires exactly one file path argument"
				olog.Entry(context.TODO()).Error(errMsg)
				return errors.New(errMsg)
			}
			return nil
		}, addConfigDependencies)
}

func cmdConfigDependenciesAddFlags(f *pflag.FlagSet) {
	f.StringSliceVarP(&inspectFlags.modules, "module", "m", nil, "Names of modules to filter target action by.")
}

func addConfigDependencies(ctx context.Context, out io.Writer, args []string) error {
	return configDependencies.AddConfigDependencies(ctx, out, inspect.Options{
		Filename:       inspectFlags.filename,
		OutFormat:      inspectFlags.outFormat,
		RemoteCacheDir: inspectFlags.remoteCacheDir,
		Modules:        inspectFlags.modules,
	}, args[0])
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Provide exactly one dependency file path: `skaffold inspect config-dependencies add dependency.json -f skaffold.yaml`
2. Run the command once per dependency file instead of passing multiple paths
3. Check shell quoting so the path isn't split into multiple arguments

Example fix

// before
skaffold inspect config-dependencies add dep1.json dep2.json -f skaffold.yaml
// after
skaffold inspect config-dependencies add dep1.json -f skaffold.yaml
skaffold inspect config-dependencies add dep2.json -f skaffold.yaml

FILES=(dependency.json)
[ ${#FILES[@]} -eq 1 ] || { echo "exactly one file path required"; exit 1; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `skaffold inspect config-dependencies add` with zero args or more than one file path, e.g. `add dep1.json dep2.json`. The dependency file path must be the single positional arg; the skaffold config is supplied via the -f flag.

Common situations: Passing multiple dependency files at once expecting batch add; omitting the file path and only providing `-f skaffold.yaml`.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• `apply` requires at least one manifest argument
• `exec` requires exactly one action to execute
• `jobManifestPaths modify` requires exactly one manifest file
• `inspect namespaces list` requires exactly one manifest file
• running diagnostic on artifacts: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7b9f32bace3a3a64. Report an issue: GitHub.