hashicorp/terraform · error

attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; data is

Error message

attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; data is empty

What it means

StateStoreConfigState.Validate at statestore_config_state.go:45 rejects an empty state store — Empty() returns true when the receiver is nil or Type == '' (statestore_config_state.go:36). Encoding such an object would produce a meaningless file with no state store, so it is blocked before serialization in EncodeBackendStateFile.

Source

Thrown at internal/command/workdir/statestore_config_state.go:46

	Type               string                          `json:"type"`                 // State store type name
	Provider           *ProviderConfigState            `json:"provider"`             // Details about the state-storage provider
	ConfigRaw          json.RawMessage                 `json:"config"`               // state_store block raw config, barring provider details
	Hash               uint64                          `json:"hash"`                 // Hash of the state_store block's configuration, including the nested provider block
	ProviderSupplyMode getproviders.ProviderSupplyMode `json:"provider_supply_mode"` // How the provider was supplied to Terraform during the init operation that created this config state.
}

// Empty returns true if there is no active state store.
func (s *StateStoreConfigState) Empty() bool {
	return s == nil || s.Type == ""
}

// Validate returns true if there are no missing expected values, and
// important values have been validated, e.g. FQNs. When the config is
// invalid an error will be returned.
func (s *StateStoreConfigState) Validate() error {
	// Are any bits of data totally missing?
	if s.Empty() {
		return fmt.Errorf("attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; data is empty")
	}
	if s.Type == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; state store type is missing")
	}
	if s.Provider == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; provider data is missing")
	}
	if s.ConfigRaw == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; state_store configuration data is missing")
	}

	// Validity of data that is there
	err := s.Provider.Source.Validate()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("state store is not valid: %w", err)
	}

	// Version information is required if the provider isn't builtin or unmanaged by Terraform

View on GitHub (pinned to c9def3e214)

Solutions

1. If this surfaces to an end user, report a Terraform bug with the version and reproduction steps.
2. In caller code, only invoke EncodeBackendStateFile when the StateStoreConfigState is fully populated (Type, Provider, ConfigRaw all set).
3. Re-run 'terraform init' to regenerate a well-formed .terraform/ directory.

Example fix

// before
s := &workdir.StateStoreConfigState{} // Type empty
EncodeBackendStateFile(&BackendStateFile{StateStore: s}) // -> error 767

// after
s.Type = "remote"
s.Provider = &ProviderConfigState{...}
s.ConfigRaw = raw
s.ProviderSupplyMode = getproviders.ManagedByTerraform

// Never validate/encode an empty state store.
if s.Empty() {
    return errors.New("cannot encode: state store config is empty")
}
// only call EncodeBackendStateFile when s is fully populated.

null

null

When it happens

Trigger: Validate() is called (transitively from EncodeBackendStateFile at backend_state.go:135) on a StateStoreConfigState whose Type is unset or on a nil receiver.

Common situations: Internal programming error where a StateStoreConfigState was allocated but never populated; this is not reachable from normal user configuration.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; it conta
• attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; state st
• attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; provider
• attempted to encode a malformed backend state file; state_st
• error when preparing state store config for planfile: %s

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@c9def3e214 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ff66b45713330195. Report an issue: GitHub.