GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

getting tags: %w

Error message

getting tags: %w

What it means

Wraps a deployutil.ImageTags failure in printArtifactDiagnostics during `skaffold diagnose`. ImageTags builds the tagger and tags every artifact (running the actual tag resolution, e.g. git describe or hashing build context); failure means tag resolution or artifact retrieval broke for at least one artifact.

Source

Thrown at cmd/skaffold/app/cmd/diagnose.go:117

	}

	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. Read the wrapped error; for gitCommit taggers run diagnose inside the full git clone (not an archive copy) with at least one commit
2. Fix the artifact's workspace path so the build context exists
3. Ensure custom tagger commands resolve on PATH and exit 0
4. Switch artifacts to a hash-based tagger (sha256) to avoid external dependencies

Example fix

# before: project copied without .git, gitCommit tagger fails
# after
git init && git add -A && git commit -m init   # or copy with git history
skaffold diagnose

# preconditions for gitCommit tagger and artifacts
test -d .git || echo "not a git repo"
git log --oneline -1 || echo "no commits"
test -d <workspace> || echo "artifact workspace missing"
command -v <custom-tagger-cmd> >/dev/null || echo "custom tagger not on PATH"

if err := run(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "getting tags:") {
        // underlying error names the failing artifact/tagger
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: `skaffold diagnose` calls deployutil.ImageTags(ctx, runCtx, tagger, out, runCtx.Artifacts()) and it errors — gitCommit tagger outside a git repo / with no commits, custom tagger command failing, or an artifact with missing build context.

Common situations: Diagnosing a copied project directory without the .git history (gitCommit tagger fails); workspace field pointing to a nonexistent directory; custom tagger script not on PATH; artifact name not resolvable (invalid image name).

Related errors

• %q is not a valid git tagger variant
• unable to find git commit: %w
• getting git status: %w
• CONFIG_REMOTE_REPO_CACHE_NOT_FOUND_ERR
• custom tag not provided

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ab1545b106e22f55. Report an issue: GitHub.