GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

INIT_DOCKER_NETWORK_INVALID_MODE

INIT_DOCKER_NETWORK_INVALID_MODE

Error message

extracting container name from a non valid container network mode '%s'

What it means

Docker network modes are either 'bridge'/'host'/default or 'container:<name>'. extractContainerNameFromNetworkMode is given a mode it cannot parse into a container name, so it returns an actionable error with code INIT_DOCKER_NETWORK_INVALID_MODE and a fix suggestion.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/schema/validation/validation.go:330

		maybeID := strings.SplitN(mode, ":", 2)[1]
		id, err := util.ExpandEnvTemplate(maybeID, map[string]string{})
		if err != nil {
			return "", sErrors.NewError(err,
				&proto.ActionableErr{
					Message: fmt.Sprintf("unable to parse container name %s: %s", mode, err),
					ErrCode: proto.StatusCode_INIT_DOCKER_NETWORK_PARSE_ERR,
					Suggestions: []*proto.Suggestion{
						{
							SuggestionCode: proto.SuggestionCode_FIX_DOCKER_NETWORK_CONTAINER_NAME,
							Action:         fmt.Sprintf("Check the content of the environment variable: %s", maybeID),
						},
					},
				})
		}
		return id, nil
	}
	errMsg := fmt.Sprintf("extracting container name from a non valid container network mode '%s'", mode)
	return "", sErrors.NewError(errors.New(errMsg),
		&proto.ActionableErr{
			Message: errMsg,
			ErrCode: proto.StatusCode_INIT_DOCKER_NETWORK_INVALID_MODE,
			Suggestions: []*proto.Suggestion{
				{
					SuggestionCode: proto.SuggestionCode_FIX_DOCKER_NETWORK_MODE_WHEN_EXTRACTING_CONTAINER_NAME,
					Action:         "Only container mode allowed when calling 'extractContainerNameFromNetworkMode'",
				},
			},
		})
}

// validateDockerNetworkModeExpression makes sure that the network mode starts with "container:" followed by a valid container name
func validateDockerNetworkModeExpression(image string, expr string) error {
	id, err := extractContainerNameFromNetworkMode(expr)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Format the network mode as container:<container-name> (e.g. container:mydb).
2. Use a supported simple mode (bridge or host) if no container network is intended.
3. Follow the suggestion in the actionable error (FIX_DOCKER_NETWORK_MODE_WHEN_EXTRACTING_CONTAINER_NAME).

Example fix

# before
networkMode: mydb
# after
networkMode: container:mydb

func parseNetworkMode(mode string) (string, bool) {
    switch mode { case "", "bridge", "host": return "", true }
    if strings.HasPrefix(mode, "container:") && len(strings.Split(mode, ":")) == 2 {
        return strings.TrimPrefix(mode, "container:"), true
    }
    return "", false
}

name, ok := parseNetworkMode(mode); if !ok { /* invalid mode */ }

_, err := validateDockerNetworkModeExpression(...)
var se *sErrors.Error
if errors.As(err, &se) && se.ErrCode == proto.StatusCode_INIT_DOCKER_NETWORK_INVALID_MODE {
    // rewrite mode to container:<name> and retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: An artifact's sync/automation networkMode string is neither empty/bridge/host nor of the form container:<name>; called from validateDockerNetworkModeExpression and validateDockerNetworkContainerExists.

Common situations: Typos like 'container:foo:extra', 'network:custom', or bare container names missing the 'container:' prefix in skaffold.yaml.

Related errors

• INIT_DOCKER_NETWORK_INVALID_CONTAINER_NAME
• cannot call Run with empty container config
• parsing tag %q: %w
• reading image %q: %w
• parsing reference %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4c07300fc788816d. Report an issue: GitHub.