dagger/dagger · error

failed to serialize service ID: %w

Error message

failed to serialize service ID: %w

What it means

prepTerminal wraps any error from dump.DumpID when serializing the derived service (recipe) ID for terminal output. DumpID encodes the dagql ID object into the output stream; a failure here means the ID could not be marshaled/encoded even though it was successfully derived. It is a low-level serialization failure, not a terminal-selection problem.

Source

Thrown at core/terminal.go:446

			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get dagql server: %w", err)
		}
		res, err := dag.LoadType(ctx, svcID)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to load service from handle ID: %w", err)
		}
		recipeIDable, ok := res.(interface {
			RecipeID(context.Context) (*call.ID, error)
		})
		if !ok {
			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("loaded service %T does not expose a recipe ID", res)
		}
		dumpID, err = recipeIDable.RecipeID(ctx)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to derive service recipe ID: %w", err)
		}
	}
	if err := dump.DumpID(output, dumpID); err != nil {
		return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to serialize service ID: %w", err)
	}
	fmt.Fprint(term.Stderr, dump.Newline)
	if execErr != nil {
		fmt.Fprintf(term.Stderr,
			output.String("! %s").Foreground(termenv.ANSIYellow).String(), execErr.Error())
		fmt.Fprint(term.Stderr, dump.Newline)
	}

	return term, output, nil
}

// prepTerminalEnv creates a custom shell prompt `dagger:<cwd>$`
func prepTerminalEnv(output *termenv.Output, env []string) []string {
	env = append(env, fmt.Sprintf("PS1=%s %s $ ",
		output.String("dagger").Foreground(termenv.ANSIYellow).String(),
		output.String(`$(pwd | sed "s|^$HOME|~|")`).Faint().String(),
	))
	return env

View on GitHub (pinned to 82ba2681db)

Solutions

1. Retry the command; transient serialization failures in the live session usually do not recur.
2. Check the wrapped cause (%w) to identify the underlying encoding error.
3. Update the dagger CLI/engine to matching versions; mixed versions can break ID encoding.
4. File an issue with the wrapped error if reproducible.

Example fix

null

id, err := recipeIDable.RecipeID(ctx)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("terminal: derive recipe ID: %w", err)
}
if err := dump.DumpID(output, id); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("terminal: serialize ID: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `dagger terminal` (or the internal `terminal` function) on a service/container target when the derived RecipeID's dagql object cannot be encoded by DumpID — e.g. corrupted or unsupported ID object state in the current query session.

Common situations: Internal engine/query state inconsistencies after upgrading a session, or a bug in ID encoding for a newly added object type; rarely hit by end users directly.

Related errors

• before ID: %w
• after ID: %w
• message %d: %w
• module object SDK input call frame: %w
• encode persisted module object field %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of dagger/dagger@82ba2681db (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1e4948364d3ea4a8. Report an issue: GitHub.