golangci/golangci-lint · error

[%s] validate: %w

Error message

[%s] validate: %w

What it means

In executeVerify, the configuration file is validated against a JSON Schema via validateConfiguration. If the returned error is NOT a *jsonschema.ValidationError (i.e. an unexpected, infrastructure-level failure), it is wrapped as "[%s] validate: %w" with the config file path. Actual schema violations are instead printed as detail output and reported separately.

Source

Thrown at pkg/commands/config_verify.go:34

	jsonsch "github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/jsonschema"
	"github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/pkg/exitcodes"
)

func (c *configCommand) executeVerify(cmd *cobra.Command, _ []string) error {
	usedConfigFile := c.getUsedConfig()
	if usedConfigFile == "" {
		c.log.Warnf("No config file detected")
		os.Exit(exitcodes.NoConfigFileDetected)
	}

	c.log.Infof("Verifying the configuration file %q with the JSON Schema", usedConfigFile)

	err := validateConfiguration(jsonsch.NextSchema, usedConfigFile)
	if err != nil {
		var v *jsonschema.ValidationError
		if !errors.As(err, &v) {
			return fmt.Errorf("[%s] validate: %w", usedConfigFile, err)
		}

		printValidationDetail(cmd, v.DetailedOutput())

		return errors.New("the configuration contains invalid elements")
	}

	return nil
}

func validateConfiguration(schemaPath, targetFile string) error {
	compiler := jsonschema.NewCompiler()
	compiler.UseLoader(jsonsch.NewEmbedLoader())
	compiler.DefaultDraft(jsonschema.Draft7)

	// The name is not us
	schema, err := compiler.Compile(schemaPath)
	if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to ed7a235d2d)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped %w error — it usually points to a file-open/decode or schema-compile problem also wrapped in this package
2. Verify the config file path passed to verify exists and has a supported extension (.yaml, .yml, .json, .toml)
3. Reinstall the binary if the embedded schema appears missing/corrupt
4. If the wrapped error IS a ValidationError, expect the separate message 'the configuration contains invalid elements' instead — fix the flagged config keys

Example fix

// before
$ golangci-lint config verify ./nonexistent.yml
// [./nonexistent.yml] validate: open ./nonexistent.yml: no such file or directory

// after
$ golangci-lint config verify .golangci.yml

info, err := os.Stat(usedConfigFile)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("config file %s must exist before verify: %w", usedConfigFile, err)
}
switch strings.ToLower(filepath.Ext(usedConfigFile)) {
case ".yaml", ".yml", ".json", ".toml":
default:
    return fmt.Errorf("unsupported config extension %s", filepath.Ext(usedConfigFile))
}

func isSchemaValidationError(err error) bool {
    var v *jsonschema.ValidationError
    return errors.As(err, &v)
}

if err := validateConfiguration(jsonsch.NextSchema, usedConfigFile); err != nil {
    var v *jsonschema.ValidationError
    if !errors.As(err, &v) {
        return fmt.Errorf("[%s] validate: %w", usedConfigFile, err) // infra failure, not user config
    }
    printValidationDetail(cmd, v.DetailedOutput())
    return errors.New("the configuration contains invalid elements")
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running the config verify subcommand when validateConfiguration fails with a non-ValidationError — e.g. the embedded schema could not be compiled/applied, or the target file could not be read/decoded at all.

Common situations: Passing a file with an unsupported extension to verify; internal issue building the JSON Schema compiler; the schema asset is missing or corrupt in the installation.

Related errors

• the configuration contains invalid elements
• root field 'version' is required
• no plugins defined
• field 'module' is required
• missing information: 'version' or 'path' should be provided

AI-assisted analysis of golangci/golangci-lint@ed7a235d2d (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c023c6a54e81f667. Report an issue: GitHub.