golangci/golangci-lint · error

severities (%v) are not inside supported values (%v), fallba

Error message

severities (%v) are not inside supported values (%v), fallback to '%s'

What it means

golangci-lint's severity printer refuses to run when the user's configured severity rules reference severity names that the printer does not support. It builds a quoted list of the offending severity names and the list of allowed ones, then returns this error so the run fails fast instead of silently mislabeling issues. The message mentions a fallback default severity, but the error still aborts the printer.

Source

Thrown at pkg/printers/printer.go:239

		s.unsupportedSeverities = make(map[string]struct{})
	}

	s.unsupportedSeverities[severity] = struct{}{}

	return s.defaultSeverity
}

func (s *severitySanitizer) Err() error {
	if len(s.unsupportedSeverities) == 0 {
		return nil
	}

	var names []string
	for k := range s.unsupportedSeverities {
		names = append(names, "'"+k+"'")
	}

	return fmt.Errorf("severities (%v) are not inside supported values (%v), fallback to '%s'",
		strings.Join(names, ", "), strings.Join(s.allowedSeverities, ", "), s.defaultSeverity)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to ed7a235d2d)

Solutions

1. Fix the severity names in your severity rules so each matches one of the supported values listed in the error
2. Add the missing severity name to the supported severities list in your config (severity-rules / default-severity settings)
3. Use the default severity for those rules until the config is corrected

Example fix

# before (.golangci.yml)
severity-rules:
  - linters: [errcheck]
    severity: MAJOR
# after
severity-rules:
  - linters: [errcheck]
    severity: major

// Go: validate severity names before configuring the printer
var allowed = map[string]bool{"error": true, "warning": true, "info": true}
for sev := range cfg.SeverityRules {
    if !allowed[sev] { return fmt.Errorf("unsupported severity %q", sev) }
}

if err := printer.Print(issues); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "are not inside supported values") {
        log.Fatalf("config error: %v", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Print on a severity printer created with unsupportedSeverities containing names not present in allowedSeverities — e.g. severity rules in .golangci.yml mapping linters to severity strings that are not one of the configured supported severities.

Common situations: Typo in a severity name under linterview settings (e.g. 'erorr' or 'Warning' vs 'warning'); using default severity names like 'info'/'hint' after overriding the supported severity set with a custom list; upgrading golangci-lint where the default severity vocabulary changed.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• can't set severity rule option: no default severity defined
• severity should be set
• the configuration contains invalid elements
• unsupported configuration format
• the configuration contains invalid elements

AI-assisted analysis of golangci/golangci-lint@ed7a235d2d (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b11a8387da5a615e. Report an issue: GitHub.