ahmetb/kubectx · error

"contexts" is not a sequence node

Error message

"contexts" is not a sequence node

What it means

Type-guard error in contextsNodeOf: the 'contexts' field exists in the kubeconfig YAML but its node kind is not a sequence (list). E.g. 'contexts: foo' (a scalar) or a mapping instead of a list. The kubeconfig is structurally invalid for context operations.

Source

Thrown at internal/kubeconfig/contexts.go:33

package kubeconfig

import (
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"slices"

	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/kyaml/yaml"
)

func contextsNodeOf(fe *fileEntry) (*yaml.RNode, error) {
	contexts, err := fe.config.Pipe(yaml.Get("contexts"))
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if contexts == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("\"contexts\" entry is nil")
	} else if contexts.YNode().Kind != yaml.SequenceNode {
		return nil, errors.New("\"contexts\" is not a sequence node")
	}
	return contexts, nil
}

// contextNodeWithFileIndex searches for a context by name across all files.
// Returns the context node and the index of the file that contains it.
// Files without a valid "contexts" sequence are skipped, but if errors occur
// during lookup they are included in the final error message.
func (k *Kubeconfig) contextNodeWithFileIndex(name string) (*yaml.RNode, int, error) {
	var fileErrors []error
	for i := range k.files {
		contexts, err := contextsNodeOf(&k.files[i])
		if err != nil {
			fileErrors = append(fileErrors, fmt.Errorf("file %d: %w", i, err))
			continue
		}
		context, err := contexts.Pipe(yaml.Lookup("[name=" + name + "]"))
		if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 12ad6fb22e)

Solutions

1. Fix the kubeconfig so 'contexts' is a YAML list of context objects
2. Compare against a valid kubeconfig or regenerate it with `kubectl config set-context`

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at internal/kubeconfig/contexts.go:33 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of ahmetb/kubectx@12ad6fb22e (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/76e2ac13a58cb224. Report an issue: GitHub.