abiosoft/colima · error

invalid downloader : must be one of

Error message

invalid downloader %q: must be one of %s, %s

What it means

ValidateDownloader normalizes the downloader choice case-insensitively and accepts exactly two values: DownloaderNative ('native', the Go built-in) and DownloaderCurl ('curl'). Anything else — 'wget', 'curl' with trailing whitespace, or the empty string — reaches the default branch and is rejected, quoting both the offending value and the allowed set.

Solutions

1. Set the value to exactly 'native' or 'curl' (any casing)
2. Unset COLIMA_DOWNLOADER entirely to use the built-in default
3. Inspect for hidden characters: printf '%s' "$COLIMA_DOWNLOADER" | od -c

func isValidDownloader(v string) bool {
	_, err := ValidateDownloader(strings.TrimSpace(v))
	return err == nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: COLIMA_DOWNLOADER is set to an unsupported value (e.g. wget) or a downloader flag carries a typo, and any colima code path that downloads artifacts runs.

Common situations: Copy-pasted environment snippets from tutorials suggesting wget; trailing whitespace or quotes inside env values; stale values from older versions.

Related errors

• curl not found in PATH
• 'colima model' requires docker runtime, current runtime is
• 'colima model' requires krunkit VM type for GPU access…
• error loading instance config
• unknown runner type: (valid options: docker, ramalama)

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1f0358c2b90d0fda. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at util/downloader/curl.go:31

const (
	// DownloaderNative uses Go's native HTTP client
	DownloaderNative = "native"
	// DownloaderCurl uses the curl command (honors .curlrc)
	DownloaderCurl = "curl"

	envDownloader = "COLIMA_DOWNLOADER"
)

// ValidateDownloader validates the downloader value (case-insensitive).
// Returns the normalized value or an error if invalid.
func ValidateDownloader(v string) (string, error) {
	switch strings.ToLower(v) {
	case DownloaderNative:
		return DownloaderNative, nil
	case DownloaderCurl:
		return DownloaderCurl, nil
	default:
		return "", fmt.Errorf("invalid downloader %q: must be one of %s, %s", v, DownloaderNative, DownloaderCurl)
	}
}

// curlDownloader handles downloads using the curl command
type curlDownloader struct{}

// Download downloads a file using curl
func (c *curlDownloader) Download(r Request, destPath string) error {
	// check if curl is available
	if _, err := exec.LookPath("curl"); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("curl not found in PATH: %w", err)
	}

	args := []string{
		"-fSL",    // fail on HTTP errors, show errors, follow redirects
		"-C", "-", // resume if possible (auto-detect offset)
		"--progress-bar", // show progress bar
		"-o", destPath,   // output file

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