gohugoio/hugo · error

invalid deployment.target.include

Error message

invalid deployment.target.include %q: %v

What it means

Target.ParseIncludeExclude (deploy/deployconfig/deployConfig.go:82) compiles the target's Include field via hglob.GetGlob. This wraps a glob-parse failure. The Include field restricts which files a deployment target uploads.

Solutions

1. Validate the Include value as a glob; prefer simple patterns like '**/*.css'.
2. Remember include/exclude are globs (hglob), not regex.
3. Balance any brackets/braces in the pattern.

Example fix

# before
[[deployment.targets]]
name = "cdn"
include = "[assets"   # unclosed bracket

# after
[[deployment.targets]]
name = "cdn"
include = "assets/**"

import "github.com/gohugoio/hugo/hugofs/hglob"

func ValidateIncludeGlob(pattern string) error {
    if pattern == "" { return nil }
    _, err := hglob.GetGlob(pattern)
    return err
}

if err := tgt.ParseIncludeExclude(); err != nil {
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Setting `include` on a [[deployment.targets]] entry to a value hglob cannot parse (e.g. an unmatched bracket or other glob syntax error).

Common situations: Confusing glob and regex syntax in include; a bracket expression like '[abc' that is unclosed.

Related errors

• invalid deployment.target.exclude
• deployment target not found
• empty deployment matcher
• empty deployment target
• failed to compile Headers glob

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0c7753750ba8275c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at deploy/deployconfig/deployConfig.go:84

	Include string
	Exclude string

	// Parsed versions of Include/Exclude.
	IncludeGlob glob.Glob `json:"-"`
	ExcludeGlob glob.Glob `json:"-"`

	// If true, any local path matching <dir>/index.html will be mapped to the
	// remote path <dir>/. This does not affect the top-level index.html file,
	// since that would result in an empty path.
	StripIndexHTML bool
}

func (tgt *Target) ParseIncludeExclude() error {
	var err error
	if tgt.Include != "" {
		tgt.IncludeGlob, err = hglob.GetGlob(tgt.Include)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("invalid deployment.target.include %q: %v", tgt.Include, err)
		}
	}
	if tgt.Exclude != "" {
		tgt.ExcludeGlob, err = hglob.GetGlob(tgt.Exclude)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("invalid deployment.target.exclude %q: %v", tgt.Exclude, err)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

// Matcher represents configuration to be applied to files whose paths match
// a specified pattern.
type Matcher struct {
	// Pattern is the string pattern to match against paths.
	// Matching is done against paths converted to use / as the path separator.
	Pattern string

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