ahmetb/kubectx · error

failed to convert in-memory kubeconfig to yaml: %w

Error message

failed to convert in-memory kubeconfig to yaml: %w

What it means

In newKubernetesClientSet's fallback path for in-memory kubeconfigs (no file paths available, e.g. tests), kc.Bytes() succeeded but clientcmd REST config synthesis from those YAML bytes failed — the config could not be converted into a usable *rest.Config.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kubens/list.go:134

	if paths := kc.ConfigPaths(); len(paths) > 0 {
		// Load from file paths so that client-go resolves relative paths
		// (e.g. in exec credential plugins) relative to the kubeconfig directory.
		//
		// TODO: This re-reads and re-parses the kubeconfig files from disk via
		// client-go, duplicating work already done by our kyaml-based loader.
		// A better approach would be to extract the current context/cluster/user
		// entries from the already-parsed multi-file kubeconfig and normalize
		// relative paths in memory based on which file each entry was read from.
		cfg, err = clientcmd.NewNonInteractiveDeferredLoadingClientConfig(
			&clientcmd.ClientConfigLoadingRules{Precedence: paths},
			&clientcmd.ConfigOverrides{},
		).ClientConfig()
	} else {
		// Fallback for in-memory configs (e.g. tests).
		var b []byte
		b, err = kc.Bytes()
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to convert in-memory kubeconfig to yaml: %w", err)
		}
		cfg, err = clientcmd.RESTConfigFromKubeConfig(b)
	}
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to initialize config: %w", err)
	}
	return kubernetes.NewForConfig(cfg)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 12ad6fb22e)

Solutions

1. Inspect the in-memory kubeconfig bytes for missing cluster/user/auth fields
2. Ensure the current context references existing cluster and user entries
3. Prefer file-based KUBECONFIG paths so the non-fallback loader is used

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cmd/kubens/list.go:134 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/1f9b370fb49956f6. Report an issue: GitHub.