GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

unable to find a valid API Schema version

Error message

unable to find a valid API Schema version

What it means

Fires in getLatestFromCompatibilityCheck when no config in the parsed set carries any recognizable apiVersion (every entry matched neither pattern), so the latest applicable schema version cannot be determined.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/schema/versions.go:360

		if matched := V1Pattern.MatchString(curVersion); matched {
			v1Track = append(v1Track, curVersion)
		} else if matched := V2Pattern.MatchString(curVersion); matched {
			v2Track = append(v2Track, curVersion)
		} else {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("unknown apiVersion %v", curVersion)
		}
	}

	if len(v1Track) > 0 && len(v2Track) > 0 {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("detected incompatible versions:%v are incompatible with %v", v1Track, v2Track)
	}
	if len(v1Track) > 0 {
		return latestV1.Version, nil
	}
	if len(v2Track) > 0 {
		return latest.Version, nil
	}
	return "", fmt.Errorf("unable to find a valid API Schema version")
}

// IsCompatibleWith checks if the cfgs versions can be upgraded to toVersion.
func IsCompatibleWith(cfgs []util.VersionedConfig, toVersion string) (bool, error) {
	var pattern *regexp.Regexp
	if matched := V1Pattern.MatchString(toVersion); matched {
		pattern = V1Pattern
	} else if matched := V2Pattern.MatchString(toVersion); matched {
		pattern = V2Pattern
	} else {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("target version %v is invalid", toVersion)
	}
	var badVersions []string
	for _, cfg := range cfgs {
		curVersion := cfg.GetVersion()
		if matched := pattern.MatchString(curVersion); !matched {
			badVersions = append(badVersions, curVersion)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Add a valid apiVersion (e.g. skaffold/v4beta11) to skaffold.yaml
2. Run `skaffold fix` to repair/normalize the config header
3. Verify the file being parsed is actually a skaffold config and not another YAML file

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pkg/skaffold/schema/versions.go:360 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/62d562b78351ac7e. Report an issue: GitHub.