ahmetb/kubectx · error

failed to check context: %w

Error message

failed to check context: %w

What it means

ContextExists(name) errored while validating the requested target context. The contexts-list lookup itself failed (kyaml traversal error), not a clean not-found; the input at fault is the contexts field of a kubeconfig file.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kubectx/switch.go:70

func switchContext(name string) (string, error) {
	prevCtxFile, err := kubectxPrevCtxFile()
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to determine state file: %w", err)
	}

	kc := new(kubeconfig.Kubeconfig).WithLoader(kubeconfig.DefaultLoader)
	defer kc.Close()
	if err := kc.Parse(); err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("kubeconfig error: %w", err)
	}

	prev, err := kc.GetCurrentContext()
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to get current context: %w", err)
	}
	exists, err := kc.ContextExists(name)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to check context: %w", err)
	}
	if !exists {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("no context exists with the name: \"%s\"", name)
	}
	if err := kc.ModifyCurrentContext(name); err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	if err := kc.Save(); err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to save kubeconfig: %w", err)
	}

	if prev != name {
		if err := writeLastContext(prevCtxFile, prev); err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to save previous context name: %w", err)
		}
	}
	return name, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 12ad6fb22e)

Solutions

1. Validate the contexts list YAML in each KUBECONFIG file
2. Identify the broken file with kubectl config get-contexts
3. Fix or remove the malformed file and retry

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cmd/kubectx/switch.go:70 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/285cc59a1dbf4251. Report an issue: GitHub.