GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

running diagnostic on artifacts: %w

Error message

running diagnostic on artifacts: %w

What it means

Wraps any failure from diagnose.CheckArtifacts, which renders and inspects each artifact's manifests during `skaffold diagnose`. The wrapper adds context that the failure happened in the artifact-diagnostics phase, preserving the underlying cause via %w.

Source

Thrown at cmd/skaffold/app/cmd/diagnose.go:125

	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 %w cause to identify which artifact/check failed
2. Run `skaffold diagnose -v debug` for verbose detail on the failing artifact
3. Fix the underlying artifact definition or manifest the cause points to
4. Re-run diagnose to confirm the config renders cleanly

Example fix

// underlying cause example
// before: opaque failure inside diagnose run
// after: inspect cause
if err := diagnose.CheckArtifacts(ctx, runCtx, imageTags, out); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("running diagnostic on artifacts: %w", err)
}
// then fix the artifact/manifest named in err

if err := diagnose.CheckArtifacts(ctx, runCtx, imageTags, out); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("running diagnostic on artifacts: %w", err)
}
// caller: errors.Is/As on the wrapped cause to branch on the specific artifact failure

When it happens

Trigger: `skaffold diagnose` (or doDiagnose) iterates loaded configs and calls diagnose.CheckArtifacts(ctx, runCtx, imageTags, out); any error returned by that check (render failures, missing images, bad manifests) is wrapped at diagnose.go:125.

Common situations: Diagnosing a project where an artifact's image tag is missing from imageTags, a builder/renderer plugin fails, or manifests referenced by the artifact cannot be parsed.

Related errors

• `apply` requires at least one manifest argument
• `exec` requires exactly one action to execute
• `config-dependencies add` requires exactly one file path arg
• `jobManifestPaths modify` requires exactly one manifest file
• `inspect namespaces list` requires exactly one manifest file

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9bfa3092fdb08d18. Report an issue: GitHub.