docker/cli · error

invalid field '%s' must be a key=value pair

Error message

invalid field '%s' must be a key=value pair

What it means

Error "invalid field '%s' must be a key=value pair" thrown in docker/cli.

Source

Thrown at opts/swarmopts/secret.go:46

		File: &swarm.SecretReferenceFileTarget{
			UID:  "0",
			GID:  "0",
			Mode: 0o444,
		},
	}

	// support a simple syntax of --secret foo
	if len(fields) == 1 && !strings.Contains(fields[0], "=") {
		options.File.Name = fields[0]
		options.SecretName = fields[0]
		o.values = append(o.values, options)
		return nil
	}

	for _, field := range fields {
		key, val, ok := strings.Cut(field, "=")
		if !ok || key == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("invalid field '%s' must be a key=value pair", field)
		}
		// TODO(thaJeztah): these options should not be case-insensitive.
		switch strings.ToLower(key) {
		case "source", "src":
			options.SecretName = val
		case "target":
			options.File.Name = val
		case "uid":
			options.File.UID = val
		case "gid":
			options.File.GID = val
		case "mode":
			m, err := strconv.ParseUint(val, 0, 32)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("invalid mode specified: %v", err)
			}

			options.File.Mode = os.FileMode(m)

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at opts/swarmopts/secret.go:46 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/585604bbd5ef1abf.json. Report an issue: GitHub.