abiosoft/colima · error

error marshalling settings to json: %w

Error message

error marshalling settings to json: %w

What it means

Returned by limaVM.Set when json.Marshal of the in-memory settings map (map[string]interface{} loaded from the VM-side config file) fails before persisting. Like the other marshal guards in this package it is defensive: a map decoded from JSON re-encodes cleanly unless it contains non-serializable injected values.

Source

Thrown at environment/vm/lima/config.go:42

	_ = json.Unmarshal([]byte(b), &obj)

	return obj
}
func (l limaVM) Get(key string) string {
	if val, ok := l.getConf()[key]; ok {
		return val
	}

	return ""
}

func (l limaVM) Set(key, value string) error {
	obj := l.getConf()
	obj[key] = value

	b, err := json.Marshal(obj)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error marshalling settings to json: %w", err)
	}

	if err := l.Run("sudo", "mkdir", "-p", filepath.Dir(configFile)); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error saving settings: %w", err)
	}

	if err := l.Write(configFile, b); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error saving settings: %w", err)
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. If you maintain a fork, keep the settings map limited to JSON-native types (string, bool, float64, map, slice).
2. Reset persisted VM settings to reseed a clean map: delete the profile ('colima delete -f') and start again.
3. Upgrade colima if you hit this on a released binary and file an issue with the stack trace — it indicates an internal bug.

// keep the settings map JSON-native before marshalling
for k, v := range obj {
    if !isJSONNative(v) { // string, bool, float64, map[string]interface{}, []interface{}, nil
        return fmt.Errorf("settings key %q holds non-serializable value %T", k, v)
    }
}

func isJSONNative(v interface{}) bool {
    switch v.(type) {
    case nil, string, bool, float64, json.Number,
         map[string]interface{}, []interface{}:
        return true
    }
    return false
}

b, err := json.Marshal(obj)
if err != nil {
    // defensive path: drop to a fresh map rather than failing the VM start
    log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error marshalling settings to json: %w", err))
    b, _ = json.Marshal(map[string]string{key: value})
}

When it happens

Trigger: Only if getConf() loaded/produced a map containing a json-incompatible value (chan/func/complex or a failing custom marshaler) — not producible from the JSON file itself; a corrupt or fork-modified codepath is the realistic source. Call sites are settings persistence (e.g. kubernetes runtime setConfig writing ConfigKey) during 'colima start'.

Common situations: Essentially never on stock builds; appears in forks that stuff arbitrary Go values into the settings map, or after tampering with the embedded config plumbing.

Related errors

• error encoding kubernetes config to json: %w
• error marshaling store: %w
• error decoding 'limactl info' json: %w
• error saving settings: %w
• dependency check failed for VM: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0efb3ef98b874f7f. Report an issue: GitHub.