hashicorp/terraform · error

error in marshaling deferred resource changes

Error message

error in marshaling deferred resource changes: %s

What it means

Top-level propagation error from Marshal: MarshalDeferredResourceChanges failed on p.DeferredResources. Deferred changes are decoded/rendered like normal resource changes, so failures are schema/decode related, specific to the deferred set.

Solutions

  1. Read the wrapped error for the failing deferred resource.
  2. Upgrade Terraform to a version matching the plan's deferral feature set.
  3. Regenerate the plan with current providers.
  4. Ensure providers for deferred resource types are initialized.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

if err := MarshalDeferredResourceChanges(p.DeferredResources, schemas); err != nil {
    // inspect wrapped cause; deferred changes use the same schemas as normal ones
    return err
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: A deferred resource change references a provider schema missing at render time, or its values fail decode/marshal. Deferred changes are a newer plan feature, so version skew is a common cause.

Common situations: Rendering a plan with deferred actions on a Terraform that does not fully support them; provider schema changed after deferral.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@d32a084675 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bab7673a646087fa. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/command/jsonplan/plan.go:312

		}
	}

	if err := output.marshalRelevantAttrs(p); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error marshaling relevant attributes for external changes: %s", err)
	}

	// output.ResourceChanges
	if p.Changes != nil {
		output.ResourceChanges, err = MarshalResourceChanges(p.Changes.Resources, schemas)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error in marshaling resource changes: %s", err)
		}
	}

	if p.DeferredResources != nil {
		output.DeferredChanges, err = MarshalDeferredResourceChanges(p.DeferredResources, schemas)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error in marshaling deferred resource changes: %s", err)
		}
	}

	if p.DeferredActionInvocations != nil {
		output.DeferredActionInvocations, err = MarshalDeferredActionInvocations(p.DeferredActionInvocations, schemas)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error in marshaling deferred action invocations: %s", err)
		}
	}

	// output.OutputChanges
	if output.OutputChanges, err = MarshalOutputChanges(p.Changes); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error in marshaling output changes: %s", err)
	}

	// output.Checks
	if p.Checks != nil && p.Checks.ConfigResults.Len() > 0 {
		output.Checks = jsonchecks.MarshalCheckStates(p.Checks)

View on GitHub (pinned to d32a084675)