What causes "failed to create config from result: %w" in gohugoio/hugo?

Inspect the wrapped error chain: it typically contains a more specific 'failed to decode " "' or compile error.

failed to create config from result

Error message

failed to create config from result: %w

What it means

Wraps the first call to fromLoadConfigResult, which decodes the freshly-parsed config map into the structured Config and per-language Config map, runs all section decoders, compiles server/cache-buster config, and builds file caches. So this is the umbrella for any decode-stage failure that is NOT a file parse error (those surface as 266). Errors 260, 261, 262 are produced inside this function and bubble up wrapped here.

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped error chain: it typically contains a more specific 'failed to decode "<key>"' or compile error.
Fix the named section per the inner error guidance (see errors 260-264, 273-279).
Run `hugo config` only after the inner error is resolved.

Example fix

// no direct code fix; resolve the wrapped decoder error first
// e.g. if wrapped is 'failed to decode "related"', fix the [related] section.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

cfgs, err := allconfig.LoadConfig(d)
if err != nil {
    // Walk errors.Is/As to find the specific decoder error.
    var de *herrors.FileError
    if errors.As(err, &de) { /* position info available */ }
    return err
}

Prevention

Resolve file syntax (266) first; this error is purely decode-stage.
Use `hugo config` iteratively as you fix sections.

When it happens

Trigger: Any decoder failure (languages, related, markup, build, etc.) during the first decode pass; a cache-buster or server glob/regexp compile failure in CompileConfig; file cache creation failure.

Common situations: A structurally valid config file (parses fine) but with semantically invalid section values; enabling `[server]` headers/redirects with bad globs; a `[build.cacheBusters]` entry with a bad regexp.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/37d2fa4dedf66576. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at config/allconfig/load.go:73

	}

	if d.Logger == nil {
		d.Logger = loggers.NewDefault()
	}

	l := &configLoader{ConfigSourceDescriptor: d, cfg: config.New()}
	// Make sure we always do this, even in error situations,
	// as we have commands (e.g. "hugo mod init") that will
	// use a partial configuration to do its job.
	defer l.deleteMergeStrategies()
	res, _, err := l.loadConfigMain(d)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to load config: %w", err)
	}

	configs, err = fromLoadConfigResult(d.Fs, d.Logger, res)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create config from result: %w", err)
	}

	moduleConfig, modulesClient, err := l.loadModules(configs, d.IgnoreModuleDoesNotExist)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to load modules: %w", err)
	}

	if len(l.ModulesConfigFiles) > 0 {
		// Config merged in from modules.
		// Re-read the config.
		configs, err = fromLoadConfigResult(d.Fs, d.Logger, res)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create config from modules config: %w", err)
		}
		if err := configs.transientErr(); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create config from modules config: %w", err)
		}
		configs.LoadingInfo.ConfigFiles = append(configs.LoadingInfo.ConfigFiles, l.ModulesConfigFiles...)

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