crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

building client config for context %q and kube config file %

Error message

building client config for context %q and kube config file %s: %w

What it means

buildClientConfig fails when the kubeconfig fallback (clientcmd loading with explicit path and context overrides) cannot produce a rest.Config: missing/invalid kubeconfig file or unknown context name. Reached after the in-cluster attempt already failed.

Source

Thrown at pkg/acquisition/modules/kubernetes/utils.go:42

	}

	if logger != nil {
		logger.WithFields(log.Fields{
			"auth_mode": "in_cluster",
			"error":     err,
			"namespace": c.Namespace,
			"selector":  c.Selector,
		}).Warn("failed to build in-cluster kubernetes client configuration, falling back to kubeconfig")
	}

	loadingRules := &clientcmd.ClientConfigLoadingRules{ExplicitPath: c.KubeConfigFile}
	overrides := &clientcmd.ConfigOverrides{}
	overrides.CurrentContext = c.KubeContext

	cc := clientcmd.NewNonInteractiveDeferredLoadingClientConfig(loadingRules, overrides)
	cfg, err = cc.ClientConfig()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("building client config for context %q and kube config file %s: %w", c.KubeContext, c.KubeConfigFile, err)
	}

	if logger != nil {
		logger.WithFields(log.Fields{
			"auth_mode":         "kubeconfig",
			"k8s_host":          cfg.Host,
			"bearer_token_file": cfg.BearerTokenFile,
			"kube_config":       c.KubeConfigFile,
			"kube_context":      c.KubeContext,
			"namespace":         c.Namespace,
			"selector":          c.Selector,
		}).Info("using kubeconfig-based kubernetes client configuration")
	}

	return cfg, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Fix the kubeconfig file path (kube_config option or ~/.kube/config)
2. Verify the kube_context name exists in the kubeconfig
3. Validate with 'kubectl --context <name> get pods'

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pkg/acquisition/modules/kubernetes/utils.go:42 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6de8c322afa31b50. Report an issue: GitHub.