Kong/insomnia · error

Invalid JSON file uploaded, JSON file must be array of…

Error message

Invalid JSON file uploaded, JSON file must be array of key-value pairs.

What it means

Thrown by getListFromFileOrUrl when parsing an iteration-data JSON file whose top-level value parses successfully but is not an array. The CLI requires iteration data files to be a JSON array of key-value-pair objects; any other JSON shape (object, string, number) triggers this guard before transformation into environment entries.

Solutions

1. Reformat the JSON file as an array of objects, e.g. [{"user":"a"},{"user":"b"}]
2. Ensure each array element is a plain object of string keys/values, not scalars or nested arrays
3. Use CSV format instead if the data is tabular

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/insomnia-inso/src/cli.ts:227 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/0ba840932e5bf5cd. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/insomnia-inso/src/cli.ts:227

    .reduce((acc, obj) => ({ ...acc, ...obj }), {});
  const fileType = pathOrUrl.split('.').pop()?.toLowerCase();
  const content = await readFileFromPathOrUrl(pathOrUrl);
  if (!content) {
    return transformIterationDataToEnvironmentList([envAsObject]);
  }
  const list = getListFromFileOrUrl(content, fileType).map(data => ({ ...data, ...envAsObject }));
  return transformIterationDataToEnvironmentList(list);
};
const getListFromFileOrUrl = (content: string, fileType?: string): Record<string, string>[] => {
  if (fileType === 'json') {
    try {
      const jsonDataContent = JSON.parse(content);
      if (Array.isArray(jsonDataContent)) {
        return jsonDataContent.filter(
          data => data && typeof data === 'object' && !Array.isArray(data) && data !== null,
        );
      }
      throw new Error('Invalid JSON file uploaded, JSON file must be array of key-value pairs.');
    } catch {
      throw new Error('Upload JSON file can not be parsed');
    }
  } else if (fileType === 'csv') {
    // Replace CRLF (Windows line break) and CR (Mac link break) with \n, then split into csv arrays
    const csvRows = content
      .replace(/\r\n|\r/g, '\n')
      .split('\n')
      .map(row => row.split(','));
    // at least 2 rows required for csv
    if (csvRows.length > 1) {
      const csvHeaders = csvRows[0];
      const csvContentRows = csvRows.slice(1);
      return csvContentRows.map(contentRow =>
        csvHeaders.reduce((acc: Record<string, any>, cur, idx) => {
          acc[cur] = contentRow[idx] ?? '';
          return acc;
        }, {}),

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