GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

loading image into docker daemon: %w

Error message

loading image into docker daemon: %w

What it means

localDaemon.Load wraps errors from apiClient.ImageLoad when streaming a tarball into the Docker daemon (`docker load`). This fires when the daemon rejects the load request itself — before any output streaming. The underlying client/daemon error is preserved via %w.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/docker/image.go:561

			//   2. If `encodedRegistryAuth()` succeeded (so `err == nil`), then our credential was rejected, so
			//     return "" to retry as an anonymous pull.
			return "", err
		},
		Platforms: platforms,
	})
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("pulling image from repository: %w", err)
	}
	defer rc.Close()

	return streamDockerMessages(out, rc, nil)
}

// Load loads an image from a tar file. Returns the imageID for the loaded image.
func (l *localDaemon) Load(ctx context.Context, out io.Writer, input io.Reader, ref string) (string, error) {
	resp, err := l.apiClient.ImageLoad(ctx, input)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("loading image into docker daemon: %w", err)
	}
	defer resp.Close()

	if err := streamDockerMessages(out, resp, nil); err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("reading from image load response: %w", err)
	}

	return l.ImageID(ctx, ref)
}

// Tag adds a tag to an image.
func (l *localDaemon) Tag(ctx context.Context, image, ref string) error {
	_, err := l.apiClient.ImageTag(ctx, client.ImageTagOptions{Source: image, Target: ref})
	return err
}

// For k8s, we need a unique, immutable ID for the image.
// k8s doesn't recognize the imageID or any combination of the image name

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Confirm the daemon is reachable: `docker info` (start Docker Desktop / the docker service if not).
2. Check socket permissions: add yourself to the `docker` group or fix DOCKER_HOST.
3. Validate the input tar: `docker load -i <file>` manually; regenerate it if truncated (e.g. incomplete kaniko/jib build output).
4. If the tar came from another tool, re-export in docker-compatible format (`docker save` or `podman save --format docker-archive`).

Example fix

// before: daemon down
$ skaffold dev
// after
$ sudo systemctl start docker  # or start Docker Desktop
$ skaffold dev

// daemon reachable and input is a non-empty reader before calling Load
if err := client.Info(ctx); err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("docker daemon unreachable: %w", err) }
fi, err := tarFile.Stat()
if err != nil || fi.Size() == 0 { return errors.New("image tar missing or empty") }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Load(ctx, out, input, ref) when ImageLoad fails: Docker daemon not running/unreachable, the input reader yields an invalid or truncated tar archive, or permission denied on the Docker socket.

Common situations: Docker Desktop stopped while running skaffold, a corrupted or empty image tar passed as input, user not in the `docker` group (permission denied on /var/run/docker.sock), loading a tar produced by a different container tool (e.g. podman save with incompatible format).

Related errors

• getting relative tar paths: %w
• creating tar gz: %w
• StatusCode_BUILD_DOCKER_GET_DIGEST_ERR
• pruning removed container: %w
• creating docker context: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/082c76088a6b976b. Report an issue: GitHub.