GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

creating runner: %w

Error message

creating runner: %w

What it means

Skaffold failed to construct its runner from the loaded configuration set. runner.NewForConfig validates the configs and selects renderer/deployer implementations; any error there is wrapped as 'creating runner' and triggers the InitializationFailed event.

Source

Thrown at cmd/skaffold/app/cmd/runner.go:75

}

// createNewRunner creates a Runner and returns the SkaffoldConfig associated with it.
func createNewRunner(ctx context.Context, out io.Writer, opts config.SkaffoldOptions) (runner.Runner, []util.VersionedConfig, *runcontext.RunContext, error) {
	runCtx, configs, err := runContext(ctx, out, opts)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, nil, nil, err
	}

	var v2Configs []*latest.SkaffoldConfig
	for _, c := range configs {
		v2Configs = append(v2Configs, c.(*latest.SkaffoldConfig))
	}
	instrumentation.Init(v2Configs, opts.User, runCtx.GetKubeContext())
	hooks.SetupStaticEnvOptions(runCtx)
	runner, err := runner.NewForConfig(ctx, runCtx)
	if err != nil {
		event.InititializationFailed(err)
		return nil, nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("creating runner: %w", err)
	}
	return runner, configs, runCtx, nil
}

func runContext(ctx context.Context, out io.Writer, opts config.SkaffoldOptions) (*runcontext.RunContext, []util.VersionedConfig, error) {
	cfgSet, err := withFallbackConfig(ctx, out, opts, parser.GetConfigSet)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, nil, err
	}
	setDefaultRendererAndDeployer(cfgSet)

	if err := validation.Process(cfgSet, validation.GetValidationOpts(opts)); err != nil {
		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid skaffold config: %w", err)
	}
	var configs []util.VersionedConfig
	for _, cfg := range cfgSet {
		configs = append(configs, cfg.SkaffoldConfig)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Check the wrapped cause after 'creating runner:' for the specific incompatibility
2. Verify skaffold.yaml apiVersion is supported: run `skaffold config list` or check skaffold version compatibility
3. Run `skaffold fix` to migrate an old schema to the current version
4. Simplify or split multi-config setups that mix incompatible deployers

Example fix

// before
apiVersion: skaffold/v1beta2
kind: Config
// after
skaffold fix
# -> apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta7
kind: Config

if ! skaffold config list >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo 'skaffold cannot read config'; fi
skaffold fix --overwrite 2>/dev/null || true # migrate old schemas first

runner, configs, runCtx, err := createNewRunner(ctx, out, opts)
if err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "creating runner:") {
		return fmt.Errorf("runner init failed (check skaffold.yaml apiVersion): %w", err)
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling any skaffold command that creates a runner (run, dev, debug, deploy) where runner.NewForConfig returns an error: unsupported config schema version, invalid renderer/deployer combination, or internal config incompatibilities after defaults are applied.

Common situations: skaffold.yaml uses apiVersion not supported by the installed skaffold binary; mixing configs from multiple files that disagree on deployer type; upgrading skaffold past the config's schema version.

Related errors

• INSPECT_PROFILE_NOT_FOUND_ERR
• cannot resolve active Kubernetes context - multiple contexts
• filename not specified
• getting run context: %w
• getting tagger: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c7c8e23f20a7b9e6. Report an issue: GitHub.