charmbracelet/gum · error

failed to write col %d of selected row: %w

Error message

failed to write col %d of selected row: %w

What it means

After a successful selection, gum table failed to write the requested column of the chosen row to the output writer. The underlying writer error is wrapped with %w. This happens after the TUI has already run, so selection succeeded but output failed.

Source

Thrown at table/command.go:170

		padding:   []int{top, right, bottom, left},
	}
	tm, err := tea.NewProgram(
		m,
		tea.WithOutput(os.Stderr),
		tea.WithContext(ctx),
	).Run()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to start tea program: %w", err)
	}

	if tm == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to get selection")
	}

	m = tm.(model)
	if o.ReturnColumn > 0 && o.ReturnColumn <= len(m.selected) {
		if err = writer.Write([]string{m.selected[o.ReturnColumn-1]}); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to write col %d of selected row: %w", o.ReturnColumn, err)
		}
	} else {
		if err = writer.Write([]string(m.selected)); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to write selected row: %w", err)
		}
	}

	writer.Flush()

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4d089f9550)

Solutions

1. Ensure the process consuming gum's stdout keeps the pipe open long enough
2. Avoid piping into commands like `head` that close stdin early (use full output or buffering)
3. Check the output destination (file/disk) is writable and has space
4. Handle the wrapped error cause shown by %w for the specific writer failure

Example fix

// before
gum table --return-column 1 | head -n 1   # broken pipe
// after
result=$(gum table --return-column 1); echo "$result" | head -n 1

sel=$(gum table --return-column 2) || { echo 'output failed' >&2; exit 1; }
printf '%s\n' "$sel"

When it happens

Trigger: `--return-column N` is set and within range, `writer.Write(...)` returns an error — typically a broken stdout pipe (e.g. piped into `head` which closed early) or a closed/corrupted output stream.

Common situations: `gum table --return-column 2 | head -n1` causing SIGPIPE-style broken pipe, output redirected to a full disk or closed file descriptor, scripting that closes the pipe early.

Related errors

• failed to write selected row: %w
• unable to write output: %w
• stdin is empty
• failed to read line: %w
• failed to write to stdout: %w

AI-assisted analysis of charmbracelet/gum@4d089f9550 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a205d1e3c90a01c2. Report an issue: GitHub.