GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

unable to find git commit: %w

Error message

unable to find git commit: %w

What it means

GitCommit.GenerateTag runs the configured git command (per the variant) in the artifact's workspace to obtain the commit ref. If the git command fails — typically because the workspace is not a git repository, has no commits, or git isn't installed — the underlying error is wrapped as 'unable to find git commit:'.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/tag/git_commit.go:68

// NewGitCommit creates a new git commit tagger. It fails if the tagger variant is invalid.
func NewGitCommit(prefix, variant string, ignoreChanges bool) (*GitCommit, error) {
	runGitFn, found := variants[strings.ToLower(variant)]
	if !found {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%q is not a valid git tagger variant", variant)
	}

	return &GitCommit{
		prefix:        prefix,
		runGitFn:      runGitFn,
		ignoreChanges: ignoreChanges,
	}, nil
}

// GenerateTag generates a tag from the git commit.
func (t *GitCommit) GenerateTag(ctx context.Context, image latest.Artifact) (string, error) {
	ref, err := t.runGitFn(ctx, image.Workspace)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("unable to find git commit: %w", err)
	}

	ref = sanitizeTag(ref)

	if !t.ignoreChanges {
		changes, err := runGit(ctx, image.Workspace, "status", ".", "--porcelain")
		if err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("getting git status: %w", err)
		}

		if len(changes) > 0 {
			return fmt.Sprintf("%s%s-dirty", t.prefix, ref), nil
		}
	}

	return t.prefix + ref, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Initialize the repository (`git init && git commit`) or build from a proper git clone that includes .git
2. Ensure the artifact's context/workshop path points inside the git repo root
3. Install git in the CI/build image and confirm it's on PATH
4. Fetch history and tags in CI: `git fetch --tags --unshallow` when using the Tags variant

Example fix

// before
# building from extracted tarball, no .git
skaffold build
// after
git clone https://host/repo.git && cd repo && skaffold build

cmd := exec.Command("git", "-C", workspace, "rev-parse", "--is-inside-work-tree")
if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s is not a git repository or git is unavailable: %w", workspace, err)
}

tag, err := tagger.GenerateTag(ctx, image)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "unable to find git commit") {
        return fallback.GenerateTag(ctx, image) // e.g. dateTime tagger
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: GenerateTag invoked on an artifact whose image.Workspace directory is not inside a git working tree; a fresh repo with zero commits (`git rev-parse HEAD` fails); a .git folder deleted or git binary missing from PATH in the build environment.

Common situations: Building a project downloaded as a tarball/zip without .git; CI checkouts using shallow or missing fetch of tags; monorepo subdirectories where the artifact lives outside the repo root; Docker images lacking git.

Related errors

• %q is not a valid git tagger variant
• getting git status: %w
• getting tags: %w
• bad timezone provided: %q, error: %s
• parsing template: %w

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e47aec03b67647ec. Report an issue: GitHub.