gohugoio/hugo · error

strings: negative Repeat count

Error message

strings: negative Repeat count

What it means

Thrown by strings.Repeat when the count argument n is negative (tpl/strings/strings.go:601-602). Repeat returns n copies of a string; Go's strings.Repeat panics on negative counts, so Hugo guards explicitly and returns this error instead of crashing the build.

Solutions

1. Clamp the count to a minimum of zero: {{ repeat (math.Max 0 .N) "ab" }}.
2. Guard with an if: {{ if ge .N 0 }}{{ repeat .N "ab" }}{{ end }}.
3. Fix upstream logic so the count cannot be negative.

Example fix

// before
{{ repeat .N "ab" }}
// after
{{ if ge .N 0 }}{{ repeat .N "ab" }}{{ end }}

{{ $n := math.Max 0 .N }}
{{ repeat $n "ab" }}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling {{ repeat -1 "ab" }} or {{ "ab" | repeat (sub 0 5) }} where n evaluates to a negative integer.

Common situations: Computing a repeat count from an expression that can go negative (e.g. padding math); passing a negated variable; defaulting an unset param to -1.

Related errors

• ellipsis must be a string
• length argument must be an integer
• start argument must be an integer
• text must be a string
• too many arguments passed to truncate

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@52c9bd7908 (2026-08-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9f8a29c648b14096. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at tpl/strings/strings.go:602

	}

	return strings.TrimSuffix(ss, sx), nil
}

// Repeat returns a new string consisting of n copies of the string s.
func (ns *Namespace) Repeat(n, s any) (string, error) {
	ss, err := cast.ToStringE(s)
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}

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

	if sn < 0 {
		return "", errors.New("strings: negative Repeat count")
	}

	return strings.Repeat(ss, sn), nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 52c9bd7908)