gatsbyjs/gatsby · error

${chalk.bold(decoding)} is an invalid value for the ${chalk.

Error message

${chalk.bold(decoding)} is an invalid value for the ${chalk.bold(`decoding`)} option. Please pass one of "async", "sync" or "auto".

What it means

Option-validation warning while generating markup for a markdown image node: the plugin's `decoding` option value is not one of 'async', 'sync' or 'auto'. Markup is still generated with the invalid value; the warning tells you to fix the gatsby-remark-images plugin option.

Source

Thrown at packages/gatsby-remark-images/src/index.js:246

    const title = node.title ? _.escape(node.title) : ``

    const loading = options.loading

    if (![`lazy`, `eager`, `auto`].includes(loading)) {
      reporter.warn(
        reporter.stripIndent(`
        ${chalk.bold(loading)} is an invalid value for the ${chalk.bold(
          `loading`
        )} option. Please pass one of "lazy", "eager" or "auto".
      `)
      )
    }

    const decoding = options.decoding

    if (![`async`, `sync`, `auto`].includes(decoding)) {
      reporter.warn(
        reporter.stripIndent(`
        ${chalk.bold(decoding)} is an invalid value for the ${chalk.bold(
          `decoding`
        )} option. Please pass one of "async", "sync" or "auto".
      `)
      )
    }

    const imageStyle = `
      width: 100%;
      height: 100%;
      margin: 0;
      vertical-align: middle;
      position: absolute;
      top: 0;
      left: 0;`.replace(/\s*(\S+:)\s*/g, `$1`)

    // Create our base image tag

View on GitHub (pinned to e85d62f177)

Solutions

1. Set decoding to "async", "sync" or "auto" in plugin options

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/gatsby-remark-images/src/index.js:246 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of gatsbyjs/gatsby@e85d62f177 (2026-08-26). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d6a104877b8e815c. Report an issue: GitHub.