JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh · warning

unable to get pulumi about output

Error message

unable to get pulumi about output

What it means

After deciding to fetch backend info, the segment runs `pulumi about --json` through the environment's command runner. This error is thrown when that command exits with an error, so no about output is available to decode. It indicates the pulumi CLI invocation itself failed, not the JSON parsing of its output.

Source

Thrown at src/segments/pulumi.go:167

	_, err := h.Write([]byte(s))
	if err != nil {
		log.Error(err)
		return ""
	}

	return hex.EncodeToString(h.Sum(nil))
}

func (p *Pulumi) getPulumiAbout() {
	if p.Stack == "" {
		log.Error(fmt.Errorf("pulumi stack name is empty, use `fetch_stack` property to enable stack fetching"))
		return
	}

	aboutOutput, err := p.env.RunCommand("pulumi", "about", "--json")

	if err != nil {
		log.Error(fmt.Errorf("unable to get pulumi about output"))
		return
	}

	var about struct {
		Backend *Backend `json:"backend"`
	}

	err = json.Unmarshal([]byte(aboutOutput), &about)
	if err != nil {
		log.Error(fmt.Errorf("pulumi about output decode error"))
		return
	}

	if about.Backend == nil {
		log.Debug("pulumi about backend is not set")
		return
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0976794618)

Solutions

  1. Run `pulumi about --json` manually in the project directory to see the underlying CLI error
  2. Upgrade the pulumi CLI to a recent version that supports `about --json`
  3. Ensure you are logged in (`pulumi login`) and a stack is selected (`pulumi stack select`)
  4. If you don't need backend info, remove fetch_about from the segment properties

Example fix

$ pulumi about --json
error: no stack selected
// after
$ pulumi stack select dev
$ pulumi about --json   # succeeds, prompt renders backend
Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

Validate before calling

pulumi about --json >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "pulumi about unavailable — disable fetch_about"

Try / catch

try {
  const out = execFileSync("pulumi", ["about", "--json"]);
} catch (e) {
  // fall back to rendering without backend info
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: `pulumi about` fails: pulumi CLI version too old to support `about` or `--json`, not logged in to a backend, no stack selected, network/auth errors reaching the Pulumi service, or pulumi hung and the command returned an error status.

Common situations: Old pulumi CLI (pre-3.x) without the `about` command, expired Pulumi Cloud access token, CI/containers without `pulumi login` state, or offline development.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh@0976794618 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f91adc916b481566. Report an issue: GitHub.