JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh · warning

unable to find battery state based on output

Error message

unable to find battery state based on output

What it means

On macOS the battery segment shells out to 'pmset -g batt' and parses the output with a regex expecting 'NNN%; STATE;'. If the regex doesn't produce exactly the PERCENTAGE and STATE captures, the output shape is unrecognized and this error is returned.

Source

Thrown at src/runtime/battery/battery_darwin.go:34

	case "discharging":
		return Discharging
	case "AC attached":
		return NotCharging
	case "full":
		return Full
	case "empty":
		return Empty
	case "charged":
		return Full
	default:
		return Unknown
	}
}

func parseBatteryOutput(output string) (*Info, error) {
	matches := regex.FindNamedRegexMatch(`(?P<PERCENTAGE>[0-9]{1,3})%; (?P<STATE>[a-zA-Z\s]+);`, output)
	if len(matches) != 2 {
		return nil, errors.New("unable to find battery state based on output")
	}

	var percentage int
	var err error
	if percentage, err = strconv.Atoi(matches["PERCENTAGE"]); err != nil {
		return nil, errors.New("unable to parse battery percentage")
	}

	// sometimes it reports discharging when at 100, so let's force it to Full
	// https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh/issues/3729
	if percentage == 100 {
		return &Info{
			Percentage: percentage,
			State:      Full,
		}, nil
	}

	return &Info{

View on GitHub (pinned to 0976794618)

Solutions

  1. Guard the battery segment in your theme to skip when no battery exists (check env or wrap in a template conditional)
  2. Verify 'pmset -g batt' output manually in the terminal; if localized, expect this failure and disable the segment
  3. Update oh-my-posh - newer versions may handle more pmset output variants

Example fix

// template guard before rendering battery
{{ if ne .Error "unable to find battery state based on output" }}
  {{ .Percentage }}%
{{ end }}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

out, _ := exec.Command("pmset", "-g", "batt").Output()
if !strings.Contains(string(out), "%") {
    // no battery data; skip battery segment
}

Try / catch

info, err := battery.Get()
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "battery state") {
        return nil // render nothing; machine has no battery
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: parseBatteryOutput receives pmset output that lacks the pattern '<digits>%; <state>;' - e.g. 'No Batteries Found', 'Using AC Power' without percentage, or a localized pmset output.

Common situations: Desktop Mac or Mac without battery; external display/UPS reporting unusual pmset text; non-English system locale changing pmset wording; running in a VM where pmset returns nothing useful.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh@0976794618 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/22839b5f82bf5e3d. Report an issue: GitHub.