ahmetb/kubectx · error

failed to get context names: %w

Error message

failed to get context names: %w

What it means

Inside ContextNames, ElementValues("name") failed to extract the name field values from the contexts sequence of a kubeconfig file. Fires when list elements lack the expected 'name' key structure or are malformed, after the contexts list itself was retrieved.

Source

Thrown at internal/kubeconfig/contexts.go:85

	node, _, err := k.contextNodeWithFileIndex(name)
	return node, err
}

func (k *Kubeconfig) ContextNames() ([]string, error) {
	seen := make(map[string]bool)
	var names []string

	for i := range k.files {
		contexts, err := k.files[i].config.Pipe(yaml.Get("contexts"))
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get contexts: %w", err)
		}
		if contexts == nil {
			continue
		}
		fileNames, err := contexts.ElementValues("name")
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get context names: %w", err)
		}
		for _, n := range fileNames {
			if !seen[n] {
				seen[n] = true
				names = append(names, n)
			}
		}
	}
	return names, nil
}

func (k *Kubeconfig) ContextExists(name string) (bool, error) {
	names, err := k.ContextNames()
	if err != nil {
		return false, err
	}
	return slices.Contains(names, name), nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 12ad6fb22e)

Solutions

1. Ensure every entry under contexts is a mapping with a 'name' key
2. Remove entries that are scalars or missing 'name'
3. Rerun kubectx after fixing the file

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at internal/kubeconfig/contexts.go:85 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/75d5e7ebbe481fb5. Report an issue: GitHub.