ahmetb/kubectx · error

error deleting context "%s": %w

Error message

error deleting context "%s": %w

What it means

Wrapper error in DeleteOp.Run: deleteContext failed for the given context name. Any of its inner failures (parse, current-context lookup, existence check, YAML modify, save) are surfaced here with the affected name for per-context reporting while the loop continues with other contexts.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kubectx/delete.go:40

	"github.com/ahmetb/kubectx/internal/kubeconfig"
	"github.com/ahmetb/kubectx/internal/printer"
)

// DeleteOp indicates intention to delete contexts.
type DeleteOp struct {
	Contexts []string // NAME or '.' to indicate current-context.
}

// deleteContexts deletes context entries one by one.
func (op DeleteOp) Run(_, stderr io.Writer) error {
	if err := checkIsolatedMode(); err != nil {
		return err
	}
	for _, ctx := range op.Contexts {
		// TODO inefficiency here. we open/write/close the same file many times.
		deletedName, wasActiveContext, err := deleteContext(ctx)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error deleting context \"%s\": %w", deletedName, err)
		}
		if wasActiveContext {
			printer.Warning(stderr, "You deleted the current context. Use \"%s\" to select a new context.",
				selfName())
		}

		_ = printer.Success(stderr, `Deleted context %s.`, printer.SuccessColor.Sprint(deletedName))
	}
	return nil
}

// deleteContext deletes a context entry by NAME or current-context
// indicated by ".".
func deleteContext(name string) (deleteName string, wasActiveContext bool, err error) {
	kc := new(kubeconfig.Kubeconfig).WithLoader(kubeconfig.DefaultLoader)
	defer kc.Close()
	if err := kc.Parse(); err != nil {
		return deleteName, false, fmt.Errorf("kubeconfig error: %w", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 12ad6fb22e)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped cause to see which step failed
2. Verify the context name exists (`kubectx`) and the kubeconfig is writable
3. Retry the delete for the remaining contexts

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cmd/kubectx/delete.go:40 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/eed0a58f879dc5a8. Report an issue: GitHub.