docker/cli · error

context name cannot be empty

Error message

context name cannot be empty

What it means

Error "context name cannot be empty" thrown in docker/cli.

Source

Thrown at cli/context/store/store.go:218

// GetTLSData reads, and returns the content of the given fileName for an endpoint.
// It returns an errdefs.ErrNotFound if the file was not found.
func (s *ContextStore) GetTLSData(contextName, endpointName, fileName string) ([]byte, error) {
	return s.tls.getData(contextName, endpointName, fileName)
}

// GetStorageInfo returns the paths where the Metadata and TLS data are stored
// for the context.
func (s *ContextStore) GetStorageInfo(contextName string) StorageInfo {
	return StorageInfo{
		MetadataPath: s.meta.contextDir(contextdirOf(contextName)),
		TLSPath:      s.tls.contextDir(contextName),
	}
}

// ValidateContextName checks a context name is valid.
func ValidateContextName(name string) error {
	if name == "" {
		return errors.New("context name cannot be empty")
	}
	if name == "default" {
		return errors.New(`"default" is a reserved context name`)
	}
	if !isValidName(name) {
		return fmt.Errorf("context name %q is invalid, names are validated against regexp %q", name, validNameFormat)
	}
	return nil
}

// validNameFormat is used as part of errors for invalid context-names.
// We should consider making this less technical ("must start with "a-z",
// and only consist of alphanumeric characters and separators").
const validNameFormat = `^[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+$`

// isValidName checks if the context-name is valid ("^[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+$").
//
// Names must start with an alphanumeric character (a-zA-Z0-9), followed by

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cli/context/store/store.go:218 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of docker/cli@e9452d6e78 (2026-08-01). Data as JSON: /data/errors/5a939d329481cd9c.json. Report an issue: GitHub.