gohugoio/hugo · error

both limit and seq must be provided

Error message

both limit and seq must be provided

What it means

After (collections.go:65-68) requires both a limit (n) and a sequence (l); if either is nil it stops immediately. Literal nil is the trigger here (typed-nil is caught later at line 82 with a different message).

Solutions

1. Provide concrete non-nil values for both limit and list
2. Guard: {{ with $list }}{{ after 5 . }}{{ end }}
3. Default the limit: {{ after (default $n 5) $list }}

Example fix

// before
{{ after 5 $maybeNil }}
// after
{{ with $maybeNil }}{{ after 5 . }}{{ end }}

{{ with $list }}
  {{ after (default $n 5) . }}
{{ end }}

When it happens

Trigger: {{ after 5 nil }}, {{ after nil .Pages }}, or {{ nil | after 5 }} (note pipe makes nil the first positional arg = n).

Common situations: A frontmatter param used as limit that defaulted to nil; a missing page-collection variable passed as the list; reversed pipe argument order.

Related errors

• both count and seq must be provided
• can't find function
• can't iterate over a nil value
• can't iterate over a nil value
• cannot index slice/array with nil

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6aa7ef8d592d2152. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at tpl/collections/collections.go:67

		loc:      loc,
		sortComp: compare.New(loc, true),
		dCache:   dCache,
		deps:     deps,
	}
}

// Namespace provides template functions for the "collections" namespace.
type Namespace struct {
	loc      *time.Location
	sortComp *compare.Namespace
	dCache   *hmaps.Cache[dKey, []int]
	deps     *deps.Deps
}

// After returns all the items after the first n items in list l.
func (ns *Namespace) After(n any, l any) (any, error) {
	if n == nil || l == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("both limit and seq must be provided")
	}

	nv, err := cast.ToIntE(n)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	if nv < 0 {
		return nil, errors.New("sequence bounds out of range [" + cast.ToString(nv) + ":]")
	}

	lv := reflect.ValueOf(l)
	lv, isNil := hreflect.Indirect(lv)
	if isNil {
		return nil, errors.New("can't iterate over a nil value")
	}

	switch lv.Kind() {

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