ahmetb/kubectx · error

failed to check context: %w

Error message

failed to check context: %w

What it means

ContextExists(s.target) errored while verifying the requested shell context exists. The context lookup itself failed (kyaml traversal error over the contexts list), as opposed to a clean not-found result which is handled separately.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kubectx/shell_session.go:51

func (s *shellSession) run(stderr io.Writer) error {
	if err := checkIsolatedMode(); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	kubectlPath, err := resolveKubectl()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	// Verify context exists and get current context for exit message.
	kc := new(kubeconfig.Kubeconfig).WithLoader(kubeconfig.DefaultLoader)
	defer kc.Close()
	if err := kc.Parse(); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("kubeconfig error: %w", err)
	}
	exists, err := kc.ContextExists(s.target)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to check context: %w", err)
	}
	if !exists {
		return fmt.Errorf("no context exists with the name: %q", s.target)
	}
	previousCtx, err := kc.GetCurrentContext()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to get current context: %w", err)
	}

	// Extract minimal kubeconfig for the target context.
	data, err := extractMinimalKubeconfig(kubectlPath, s.target)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to extract kubeconfig for context: %w", err)
	}

	// Optionally transform the kubeconfig (e.g. rewrite for readonly proxy).
	var cleanup func()
	if s.transformKubeconfig != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 12ad6fb22e)

Solutions

1. Inspect the contexts list in each kubeconfig file for malformed YAML
2. Run kubectl config get-contexts to identify which file kubectl chokes on
3. Repair or remove the broken kubeconfig file

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cmd/kubectx/shell_session.go:51 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/7b4a830f6c20c3f5. Report an issue: GitHub.