What causes "Failed to encode recipe: {}" in aaif-goose/goose?

Read the embedded error text for the encoding failure reason

Failed to encode recipe: {}

Error message

Failed to encode recipe: {}

What it means

Generating a recipe deeplink requires serializing the loaded recipe through recipe_deeplink::encode into the URL payload. If that encode step fails, the raw error is wrapped with this message at the match's Err arm; the deeplink is never produced.

Source

Thrown at crates/goose-cli/src/commands/recipe.rs:189

) -> Result<(String, goose::recipe::Recipe)> {
    let recipe_file = load_recipe_file(recipe_name)?;
    // Load the recipe file first to validate it
    let recipe = validate_recipe_template_from_file(&recipe_file)?;
    match recipe_deeplink::encode(&recipe) {
        Ok(encoded) => {
            let mut full_url = format!("goose://recipe?config={}", encoded);

            // Append parameters as additional query parameters
            for (key, value) in params {
                // URL-encode the parameter keys and values
                let encoded_key = urlencoding::encode(&key);
                let encoded_value = urlencoding::encode(&value);
                full_url.push_str(&format!("&{}={}", encoded_key, encoded_value));
            }

            Ok((full_url, recipe))
        }
        Err(err) => Err(anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to encode recipe: {}", err)),
    }
}

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;
    use std::fs;
    use tempfile::TempDir;

    fn create_test_recipe_file(dir: &TempDir, filename: &str, content: &str) -> String {
        let file_path = dir.path().join(filename);
        fs::write(&file_path, content).expect("Failed to write test recipe file");
        file_path.to_string_lossy().into_owned()
    }

    const VALID_RECIPE_CONTENT: &str = r#"
title: "Test Recipe with Valid JSON Schema"
description: "A test recipe with valid JSON schema"

View on GitHub (pinned to 3810898a74)

Solutions

Read the embedded error text for the encoding failure reason
Run `goose recipe validate` on the same file and fix everything it reports first
Simplify the recipe to plain string/list/map fields and regenerate
Update goose in case the encoder's accepted schema changed

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Rust: validate before encoding
use goose::recipe::validate_recipe::validate_recipe_template_from_file;
validate_recipe_template_from_file(&recipe_file)?;
let (url, _) = /* generate_deeplink(...) */; // only encode after validation passes

Prevention

Keep recipe files plain (strings, lists, maps)
Validate recipes in CI before sharing deeplinks
Regenerate deeplinks after edits instead of hand-modifying URLs

When it happens

Trigger: A recipe that loads from disk but cannot be encoded: fields that fail serialization into the deeplink payload, non-string data where strings are required, or payload constraints enforced by the encoder.

Common situations: Hand-crafted recipes with exotic YAML types (dates, anchors, tags) that do not round-trip; recipes moved between goose versions whose payload format changed; extremely large recipes exceeding URL constraints.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of aaif-goose/goose@3810898a74 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ad08b734e17db188. Report an issue: GitHub.