argoproj/argo-workflows · error

error converting %s: %w

Error message

error converting %s: %w

What it means

runConvert wraps any error returned by convertDocument for a JSON document with `error converting <path>` before propagating it out of the WalkManifests callback. The inner error (e.g. a parse failure) is preserved via %w. This is the JSON-document variant of the convert command's per-file error envelope.

Source

Thrown at cmd/argo/commands/convert.go:66

			return runConvert(cmd.Context(), args, output.String())
		},
	}

	command.Flags().VarP(&output, "output", "o", "Output format. "+output.Usage())
	command.Flags().BoolVar(&common.NoColor, "no-color", false, "Disable colorized output")

	return command
}

var yamlSeparator = regexp.MustCompile(`\n---`)

func runConvert(ctx context.Context, args []string, output string) error {
	for _, file := range args {
		err := fileutil.WalkManifests(ctx, file, func(path string, data []byte) error {
			if jsonpkg.IsJSON(data) {
				// Parse single JSON document
				if err := convertDocument(data, output, true); err != nil {
					return fmt.Errorf("error converting %s: %w", path, err)
				}
			} else {
				// Split YAML documents
				for _, doc := range yamlSeparator.Split(string(data), -1) {
					doc = strings.TrimSpace(doc)
					if doc == "" {
						continue
					}
					if err := convertDocument([]byte(doc), output, false); err != nil {
						return fmt.Errorf("error converting %s: %w", path, err)
					}
				}
			}
			return nil
		})
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped inner error to see which field failed to parse, and fix the JSON at that path
2. Validate the manifest with `argo lint` before converting to catch structural issues with clearer messages
3. Ensure the document is a single API object with correct apiVersion/kind, not an array or wrapper
4. Split multi-object JSON (e.g. a List with items[]) into individual objects before converting

Example fix

// before (nested object unsupported)
{"items":[{"apiVersion":"argoproj.io/v1alpha1","kind":"Workflow",...}]}
// after (single object per file)
{"apiVersion":"argoproj.io/v1alpha1","kind":"Workflow","metadata":{...},"spec":{...}}

jq -e 'type == "object" and (.kind | type == "string") and (.apiVersion | type == "string")' file.json \
  || { echo 'not a single k8s manifest object'; exit 1; }

if ! argo convert "$f" -o json 2>conv.err; then
  cat conv.err >&2   # envelope 'error converting <path>' + inner parse detail
fi

When it happens

Trigger: `argo convert file.json` (or a JSON manifest inside a walked directory) where the document is valid JSON but fails during conversion — e.g. TypeMeta parse error, or a malformed Workflow/CronWorkflow/WorkflowTemplate/ClusterWorkflowTemplate structure that yaml.Unmarshal rejects.

Common situations: JSON manifests exported with legacy singular `schedule`/`mutex`/`semaphore` fields and additional structural problems; hand-edited JSON with wrong nesting for the typed legacy structs; piping a JSON document that is actually a list/envelope rather than a single object.

Related errors

• failed to parse TypeMeta: %w
• unknown output mode: %s
• failed to get existing cluster workflow template %q to updat
• failed to update cluster workflow template: %s, %w
• invalid shell %q: supported shells are bash, zsh, and fish

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5209c38396b25332. Report an issue: GitHub.