GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

getting tagger: %w

Error message

getting tagger: %w

What it means

Wraps a tag.NewTaggerMux failure in printArtifactDiagnostics during `skaffold diagnose`. The tagger mux combines configured tag policies (gitCommit, envTemplate, sha256, dateTime, custom); construction fails when a tagger's arguments are invalid — most commonly an unparseable envTemplate tag template or misconfigured custom tagger.

Source

Thrown at cmd/skaffold/app/cmd/diagnose.go:113

	}
	buf, err := yaml.MarshalWithSeparator(configs)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("marshalling configuration: %w", err)
	}

	out.Write(buf)

	return nil
}

func printArtifactDiagnostics(ctx context.Context, out io.Writer, configs []schemaUtil.VersionedConfig) error {
	runCtx, err := getRunContext(ctx, opts, configs)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("getting run context: %w", err)
	}
	tagger, err := tag.NewTaggerMux(runCtx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("getting tagger: %w", err)
	}
	imageTags, err := deployutil.ImageTags(ctx, runCtx, tagger, out, runCtx.Artifacts())
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("getting tags: %w", err)
	}
	for _, c := range configs {
		config := c.(*latest.SkaffoldConfig)
		fmt.Fprintln(out, "Skaffold version:", version.Get().GitCommit)
		fmt.Fprintln(out, "Configuration version:", config.APIVersion)
		fmt.Fprintln(out, "Number of artifacts:", len(config.Build.Artifacts))
		if err := diagnose.CheckArtifacts(ctx, runCtx, imageTags, out); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("running diagnostic on artifacts: %w", err)
		}

		output.Blue.Fprintln(out, "\nConfiguration")
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Fix the tag policy in skaffold.yaml — validate template syntax for envTemplate (balanced {{ }})
2. Switch to a simple tagger (e.g. sha256 or gitCommit) to confirm the tagger is the culprit
3. Check the custom tagger command exists and is executable
4. Upgrade/downgrade skaffold to match the schema version of the tag policy fields

Example fix

# before
build:
  tagPolicy:
    envTemplate:
      template: "{{.IMAGE}}-{{.TAG"
# after
build:
  tagPolicy:
    envTemplate:
      template: "{{.IMAGE}}-{{.TAG}}"

# validate the tag template before running
python3 - <<'EOF'
import sys
t = "{{.IMAGE}}-{{.TAG}}"
assert t.count("{{") == t.count("}}"), "unbalanced template braces"
EOF

if err := run(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "getting tagger:") {
        // inspect build.tagPolicy in skaffold.yaml
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: `skaffold diagnose` builds the tagger via tag.NewTaggerMux(runCtx) and returns err because one of the build.artifacts tag policies is invalid, e.g. envTemplate with a malformed Go template.

Common situations: skaffold.yaml sets `tagPolicy: envTemplate: template: "{{.BAD" (unclosed template); custom tagger referencing a missing command; recent skaffold version removed/renamed a tagger field.

Related errors

• no valid tagger found for artifact: %q
• creating tagger: %w
• unknown tagger for strategy %+v
• multiple components with name %s
• unknown component for custom template: %s %+v

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f116733e25525b31. Report an issue: GitHub.