GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

invalid env variable format: %s, should be KEY=VALUE

Error message

invalid env variable format: %s, should be KEY=VALUE

What it means

Profile auto-activation can be driven by environment variables via `profiles.activation.env`. `isEnv` (pkg/skaffold/schema/profiles.go:209) parses each env value and requires the literal form KEY=VALUE. If the configured value contains no `=` at all, SplitN yields one element and the activation evaluation cannot proceed, so it returns this error.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/schema/profiles.go:209

	if err != nil {
		return false, err
	}

	kubeContext, err := isKubeContext(cond.KubeContext, opts)
	if err != nil {
		return false, err
	}
	return command && env && kubeContext, nil
}

func isEnv(env string) (bool, error) {
	if env == "" {
		return true, nil
	}

	keyValue := strings.SplitN(env, "=", 2)
	if len(keyValue) != 2 {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("invalid env variable format: %s, should be KEY=VALUE", env)
	}

	key := keyValue[0]
	value := keyValue[1]

	envValue := os.Getenv(key)

	// Special case, since otherwise the regex substring check (`re.Compile("").MatchString(envValue)`)
	// would always match which is most probably not what the user wanted.
	if value == "" {
		return envValue == "", nil
	}

	return skutil.RegexEqual(value, envValue), nil
}

func isCommand(command string, opts cfg.SkaffoldOptions) bool {
	if command == "" {

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Change the activation entry to include a value: `env: CI=true` (or the desired value, e.g. `env: ENV=staging`)
2. If you only care whether the variable is set (to any value), use `env: CI=` style per skaffold docs semantics or list each KEY=VALUE pair explicitly
3. Validate skaffold.yaml with `skaffold diagnose` to catch malformed activation blocks before running

Example fix

# before
profiles:
  - name: prod
    activation:
      - env: PROD
# after
profiles:
  - name: prod
    activation:
      - env: PROD=true

yq '.profiles[].activation[]?.env // empty' skaffold.yaml | grep -v '=' && echo 'must be KEY=VALUE'

When it happens

Trigger: skaffold.yaml contains a profile activation `env:` entry that is a bare name like `env: CI` or `env: DEBUG_MODE` instead of `env: CI=true`. It is evaluated whenever profile auto-activation runs (activatedProfiles -> isProfileActivated -> isActivationTriggered -> isEnv) during ApplyProfiles.

Common situations: Hand-written skaffold.yaml where the author expected a bare variable name to mean 'env var is set'; copying Kubernetes-style env entries; YAML quoting mistakes that drop the `=VALUE` part; typos like `env: FOO BAR`.

Related errors

• invalid path: %s
• value must be one of `always`, `missing`, or `never`
• CONFIG_REMOTE_REPO_CACHE_NOT_FOUND_ERR
• CONFIG_REMOTE_REPO_CACHE_NOT_FOUND_ERR
• INSPECT_BUILD_ENV_ALREADY_EXISTS_ERR

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e8ff072980c0146e. Report an issue: GitHub.