docker/cli · error

cannot supply extra formatting options to the pretty templat

Error message

cannot supply extra formatting options to the pretty template

What it means

Raised by `docker secret inspect` when the --format value starts with "pretty" but is not exactly "pretty" (e.g. `--format 'pretty {{.ID}}'`). The pretty renderer is a fixed built-in human-readable template; it cannot be combined with additional Go-template directives, so the CLI rejects the mixed format up front.

Source

Thrown at cli/command/secret/inspect.go:59

	return cmd
}

func runSecretInspect(ctx context.Context, dockerCLI command.Cli, opts inspectOptions) error {
	apiClient := dockerCLI.Client()

	if opts.pretty {
		opts.format = "pretty"
	}

	getRef := func(id string) (any, []byte, error) {
		res, err := apiClient.SecretInspect(ctx, id, client.SecretInspectOptions{})
		return res.Secret, res.Raw, err
	}

	// check if the user is trying to apply a template to the pretty format, which
	// is not supported
	if strings.HasPrefix(opts.format, "pretty") && opts.format != "pretty" {
		return errors.New("cannot supply extra formatting options to the pretty template")
	}

	secretCtx := formatter.Context{
		Output: dockerCLI.Out(),
		Format: newFormat(opts.format, false),
	}

	if err := inspectFormatWrite(secretCtx, opts.names, getRef); err != nil {
		return cli.StatusError{StatusCode: 1, Status: err.Error()}
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

Solutions

1. Use exactly `--format pretty` (or the --pretty flag) for human-readable output.
2. For custom output, drop 'pretty' and supply a pure Go template: `--format '{{.Spec.Name}}: {{.ID}}'`.
3. Get JSON with the default format and post-process with jq if you need selective fields.

Example fix

# before
docker secret inspect --format 'pretty {{.ID}}' mysecret
# after
docker secret inspect --format '{{.ID}}' mysecret   # or: --pretty

When it happens

Trigger: `docker secret inspect --format 'pretty{{...}}' name`, or any --format string with the literal prefix "pretty" followed by extra characters; also combining a configured pretty default with appended template text.

Common situations: Users trying to tweak the pretty output by appending template fields, copy-pasted commands that concatenate 'pretty' with a template, or scripts that build the format string and accidentally prepend 'pretty'.

Related errors

• --format is incompatible with human friendly format
• cannot supply extra formatting options to the pretty templat
• failed to parse hook template
• specify only one -H
• cannot supply extra formatting options to the pretty templat

AI-assisted analysis of docker/cli@e9452d6e78 (2026-08-01). Data as JSON: /data/errors/1d6696bec77e3bbc.json. Report an issue: GitHub.