JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh · error

failed to parse version in data file: %w

Error message

failed to parse version in data file: %w

What it means

Thrown by dataFromRoot when the optional top-level 'version' key exists in a data file but its value is not a valid JSON string. The version field is decoded with json.Unmarshal into data.Version; anything that is not a JSON string (number, object, array, or malformed value) fails and is wrapped with this message.

Source

Thrown at src/config/data.go:220

		}

		root = normalized
	default:
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unsupported data file extension: %s", ext)
	}

	return root, nil
}

// dataFromRoot builds a Data from a generically-decoded document root,
// shared by LoadData (any of its three formats) and ParseData (JSON only)
// once each has the same map[string]json.RawMessage shape in hand.
func dataFromRoot(root map[string]json.RawMessage) (*Data, error) {
	data := &Data{}

	if versionRaw, OK := root[DataVersionKey]; OK {
		if err := json.Unmarshal(versionRaw, &data.Version); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse version in data file: %w", err)
		}
	}

	if env, OK := root[DataEnvKey]; OK {
		data.Env = env
	}

	if segmentsRaw, OK := root[DataSegmentsKey]; OK {
		var segments map[string]json.RawMessage

		if err := json.Unmarshal(segmentsRaw, &segments); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse segments in data file: %w", err)
		}

		data.Segments = segments
	}

	return data, nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 0976794618)

Solutions

1. Make the version value a quoted string: version = "2" (TOML) or version: "2" (YAML)
2. Remove the version key entirely if versioning is not needed
3. Re-check the file after converting between formats - conversion tools often turn quoted strings into bare numbers

Example fix

// before (data.toml)
version = 2
// after
version = "2"

func versionIsString(raw []byte) error {
	var root map[string]json.RawMessage
	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &root); err != nil { return err }
	if v, ok := root["version"]; ok {
		var s string
		return json.Unmarshal(v, &s)
	}
	return nil
}

func versionIsString(root map[string]json.RawMessage) bool {
	var s string
	v, ok := root["version"]
	return ok && json.Unmarshal(v, &s) == nil
}

data, err := config.LoadData(path)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to parse version") {
	// reject or auto-correct the data file before retrying
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling LoadData or ParseData on a data file containing a version key whose value is not a JSON string - e.g. version = 1 in TOML/YAML (decodes to a number), version: [1,2] in YAML, or version = true.

Common situations: Author assuming version is numeric and writing version = 2 in a TOML data file; quoting mistakes leaving the value as a number after format conversion; copy-pasting a schema-version integer from another tool.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• failed to parse data file: %w
• failed to parse segments in data file: %w
• failed to parse env data: %w
• failed to parse data: %w
• invalid export format

AI-assisted analysis of JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh@0976794618 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d65dabc4850a4e3e. Report an issue: GitHub.