VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics · error

cannot parse `dedup_interval: %q`: %w

Error message

cannot parse `dedup_interval: %q`: %w

What it means

The optional `dedup_interval` must itself be a valid Go duration. If cfg.DedupInterval is set but fails time.ParseDuration, the parse error is wrapped. It controls how duplicate samples within an interval are collapsed.

Source

Thrown at lib/streamaggr/streamaggr.go:494

	}
	interval, err := time.ParseDuration(cfg.Interval)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot parse `interval: %q`: %w", cfg.Interval, err)
	}
	if interval < time.Second {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("aggregation interval cannot be smaller than 1s; got %s", interval)
	}

	if opts == nil {
		opts = &Options{}
	}

	// check cfg.DedupInterval
	dedupInterval := opts.DedupInterval
	if cfg.DedupInterval != "" {
		di, err := time.ParseDuration(cfg.DedupInterval)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot parse `dedup_interval: %q`: %w", cfg.DedupInterval, err)
		}
		dedupInterval = di
	}
	if dedupInterval > interval {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("dedup_interval=%s cannot exceed interval=%s", dedupInterval, interval)
	}
	if dedupInterval > 0 && interval%dedupInterval != 0 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("interval=%s must be a multiple of dedup_interval=%s", interval, dedupInterval)
	}

	// set the default staleness interval as the aggregation interval, to be consistent with query lookbehind window in metricsQL,
	// see https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/11102
	stalenessInterval := interval
	if cfg.StalenessInterval != "" {
		stalenessInterval, err = time.ParseDuration(cfg.StalenessInterval)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("cannot parse `staleness_interval: %q`: %w", cfg.StalenessInterval, err)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5079fb58f1)

Solutions

1. Use a valid Go duration, e.g. `dedup_interval: 10s`.
2. Always include a unit (s/m/h); bare numbers are invalid.
3. Remove the option entirely if deduplication is not needed.

Example fix

// before
dedup_interval: 10
// after
dedup_interval: 10s

if cfg.DedupInterval != "" {
	if _, err := time.ParseDuration(cfg.DedupInterval); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("dedup_interval %q is not a Go duration like 10s", cfg.DedupInterval)
	}
}

as, err := streamaggr.LoadFromFile(path, pushFn, opts, alias)
if err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "cannot parse `dedup_interval") {
		return fmt.Errorf("fix dedup_interval to a Go duration like 10s: %w", err)
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Config entry with `dedup_interval: 5` (missing unit), `dedup_interval: 5mins`, or any other unparseable duration string.

Common situations: Same duration-format mistakes as interval but on the dedup option; copy-paste leaving placeholder text in the value.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid duration" / "failed to parse duration": why your timeout, interval, or TTL string is rejected and which formats each library accepts — this error's family across 32 libraries.

Related errors

• cannot parse months from %q: %w
• cannot parse __scrape_interval__=%q: %w
• cannot parse __scrape_timeout__=%q: %w
• cannot parse `interval: %q`: %w
• dedup_interval=%s cannot exceed interval=%s

AI-assisted analysis of VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics@5079fb58f1 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/19eb8dcbc7156ca8. Report an issue: GitHub.