GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

rs.ae.Message (actionable error message from status check)

Error message

rs.ae.Message (actionable error message from status check)

What it means

Status.Error converts a status-check result into a plain Go error: if the stored ActionableErr has a code other than STATUSCHECK_SUCCESS, its Message (e.g. a pod/backoff failure description) is returned as the error. This is the standard way skaffold surfaces deployment status-check failures from resource status tracking.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/kubernetes/status/resource/status.go:35

package resource

import (
	"errors"

	"github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold/v2/proto/v1"
)

type Status struct {
	ae       *proto.ActionableErr
	changed  bool
	reported bool
}

func (rs Status) Error() error {
	if rs.ae.ErrCode == proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_SUCCESS {
		return nil
	}
	return errors.New(rs.ae.Message)
}

func (rs Status) ActionableError() *proto.ActionableErr {
	return rs.ae
}

func (rs Status) String() string {
	return rs.ae.Message
}

func (rs Status) Equal(other Status) bool {
	return rs.ae.Message == other.ae.Message && rs.ae.ErrCode == other.ae.ErrCode
}

func newStatus(ae *proto.ActionableErr) Status {
	return Status{
		ae:      ae,
		changed: true,

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

  1. Inspect the ActionableErr via Status.ActionableError() to get the structured code and suggestions
  2. Run `kubectl describe pod <pod>` / `kubectl logs` in the target namespace to find the root cause (bad image, failing probe, missing config)
  3. Fix the underlying workload issue, then re-run the deploy/status check

Example fix

// before
if err := status.Error(); err != nil { return err }
// after
if err := status.Error(); err != nil {
  ae := status.ActionableError()
  log.Printf("status check failed [%v]: %s", ae.ErrCode, ae.Message)
  return err
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

if st.ae != nil && st.ae.ErrCode == proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_SUCCESS { return nil } // success check before Error()

Type guard

func isStatusSuccess(rs Status) bool { return rs.ActionableError().ErrCode == proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_SUCCESS }

Try / catch

if err := status.Error(); err != nil {
  ae := status.ActionableError()
  switch ae.ErrCode {
  case proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_POD_FAILED, proto.StatusCode_STATUSCHECK_IMAGE_PULL_ERR:
    return fmt.Errorf("status %v: %w", ae.ErrCode, err)
  }
  return err
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Status.Error() after a Kubernetes status check recorded a non-success ActionableErr (container crash, backoff, deadline exceeded, etc.).

Common situations: `skaffold dev/run/deploy` failing during the pod status-check loop; pods stuck in CrashLoopBackOff or ImagePullBackOff until the status deadline is hit.

Related errors


AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/09866c24b442eabb. Report an issue: GitHub.