Kong/insomnia · error

Failed to parse API spec

Error message

Failed to parse API spec

What it means

Error "Failed to parse API spec" thrown in Kong/insomnia.

Source

Thrown at packages/insomnia/src/common/api-specs.ts:22

  contents: Record<string, any> | null;
  rawContents: string;
  format: 'openapi' | 'swagger' | null;
  formatVersion: string | null;
}

export function parseApiSpec(rawDocument: string) {
  const result: ParsedApiSpec = {
    contents: null,
    rawContents: rawDocument,
    format: null,
    formatVersion: null,
  };

  // NOTE: JSON is valid YAML so we only need to parse YAML
  try {
    result.contents = YAML.parse(rawDocument);
  } catch {
    throw new Error('Failed to parse API spec');
  }

  if (result.contents) {
    if (result.contents.openapi) {
      // Check if it's OpenAPI
      result.format = 'openapi';
      result.formatVersion = result.contents.openapi;
    } else if (result.contents.swagger) {
      // Check if it's Swagger
      result.format = 'swagger';
      result.formatVersion = result.contents.swagger;
    } else {
      // Not sure what format it is
    }
  }

  return result;
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d9bb2b0142)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/insomnia/src/common/api-specs.ts:22 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

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

AI-assisted analysis of Kong/insomnia@d9bb2b0142 (2026-08-26). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fe31ce8cc1b97b05. Report an issue: GitHub.