What causes "failed to clone git repo: unable to create directory name: %w" in GoogleContainerTools/skaffold?

Inspect the git sync config values (repo URL, ref, subDir) for typos, empty strings, or unexpected characters and correct them.

GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

failed to clone git repo: unable to create directory name: %

Error message

failed to clone git repo: unable to create directory name: %w

What it means

Thrown by syncRepo when getRepoDir(g) fails to compute the hashed cache directory name for the repo. getRepoDir hashes the repo URL/ref into a directory name, so failure indicates an internal hashing or configuration problem rather than a git issue. This is rare and usually points at malformed GitInfo input.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/git/gitutil.go:120

	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to clone repo %s: %w", g.Repo, err)
	}
	if err := os.MkdirAll(skaffoldCacheDir, 0700); err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf(
			"failed to clone repo %s: trouble creating cache directory: %w", g.Repo, err)
	}

	ref := g.Ref
	if ref == "" {
		ref, err = defaultRef(ctx, g.RepoCloneURI, g.Repo)
		if err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to clone repo %s: trouble getting default branch: %w", g.Repo, err)
		}
	}

	hash, err := getRepoDir(g)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to clone git repo: unable to create directory name: %w", err)
	}
	repoCacheDir := filepath.Join(skaffoldCacheDir, hash)
	if _, err := os.Stat(repoCacheDir); os.IsNotExist(err) {
		if opts.SyncRemoteCache.CloneDisabled() {
			return "", SyncDisabledErr(g, repoCacheDir)
		}
		if _, err := r.Run(ctx, "clone", g.RepoCloneURI, fmt.Sprintf("./%s", hash), "--branch", ref, "--depth", "1"); err != nil {
			if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "Could not find remote branch") {
				if _, err := r.Run(ctx, "clone", g.RepoCloneURI, fmt.Sprintf("./%s", hash), "--depth", "1"); err != nil {
					return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to clone repo: %w", err)
				}

				r.Dir = repoCacheDir
				if _, err := r.Run(ctx, "checkout", ref); err != nil {
					if rmErr := os.RemoveAll(repoCacheDir); rmErr != nil {
						err = fmt.Errorf("failed to remove repo cache dir: %w", rmErr)
					}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

Inspect the git sync config values (repo URL, ref, subDir) for typos, empty strings, or unexpected characters and correct them.
Reproduce with a canonical repo URL to confirm whether the URL format is the problem.
If inputs look valid, file/report a skaffold bug with the exact GitInfo values; this path is normally unreachable with well-formed config.
Pin/upgrade to a skaffold version where getRepoDir handles your input correctly.

Example fix

// before
git.Sync{Repo: "", Ref: ""}          // malformed GitInfo
// after
git.Sync{Repo: "https://github.com/org/repo", Ref: "main"}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function validateGitInfo(g) {
  const errs = [];
  if (!g || typeof g.repo !== 'string' || g.repo.length === 0) errs.push('repo required');
  if (g.ref != null && typeof g.ref !== 'string') errs.push('ref must be string');
  if (errs.length) throw new Error('invalid git config: ' + errs.join('; '));
}

Type guard

function isValidGitInfo(g) {
  return !!g && typeof g.repo === 'string' && g.repo.trim().length > 0 &&
         (g.ref === undefined || typeof g.ref === 'string');
}

Try / catch

try {
  await syncRepo(g, ctx, opts);
} catch (err) {
  if (/unable to create directory name/.test(err.message)) {
    // log full GitInfo for bug report; not user-fixable at runtime
    console.error('getRepoDir failed for GitInfo:', JSON.stringify(g));
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Only pass well-formed repo URLs (https:// or git@host:path) into git sync config.
Avoid exotic characters/control chars in repo and ref fields.
Pin skaffold versions tested against your repo naming scheme.
Validate config with skaffold config linting before runs.

When it happens

Trigger: getRepoDir(g) returns an error while computing the hash for the given GitInfo (unexpected repo/ref values fed to the hashing routine).

Common situations: Programmatic use of the skaffold git package with a malformed or empty GitInfo; unusual characters in the repo URL breaking the path derivation; upstream bug in getRepoDir's hashing of a specific repo/ref combination.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6e9095e35e48c438. Report an issue: GitHub.