What causes "Error parsing URL: %s" in hashicorp/terraform?

Replace the shorthand with a fully-qualified URL that includes the scheme (https://...) so the detector/re-parse step is bypassed.

hashicorp/terraform · error

Error parsing URL: %s

Error message

Error parsing URL: %s

What it means

Raised in detectRemoteSourceShorthands (internal/getmodules/moduleaddrs/detect_remote_shorthands.go:70). When a shorthand detector (GitHub, BitBucket, S3, GCS, etc.) succeeds and a subdirectory was detected or supplied, the result is re-parsed with url.Parse so the subdir can be appended to the path. If that reconstructed string fails to parse, this error is returned. Because detectors build the URL from controlled components, this path is rarely hit and usually signals an unusual character in the source.

Source

Thrown at internal/getmodules/moduleaddrs/detect_remote_shorthands.go:70

		var detectForce string
		detectForce, result = getForcedSourceType(result)
		result, detectSubdir := SplitPackageSubdir(result)

		// If we have a subdir from the detection, then prepend it to our
		// requested subdir.
		if detectSubdir != "" {
			if subDir != "" {
				subDir = filepath.Join(detectSubdir, subDir)
			} else {
				subDir = detectSubdir
			}
		}

		if subDir != "" {
			u, err := url.Parse(result)
			if err != nil {
				return "", fmt.Errorf("Error parsing URL: %s", err)
			}
			u.Path += "//" + subDir

			// a subdir may contain wildcards, but in order to support them we
			// have to ensure the path isn't escaped.
			u.RawPath = u.Path

			result = u.String()
		}

		// Preserve the forced getter if it exists. We try to use the
		// original set force first, followed by any force set by the
		// detector.
		if getForce != "" {
			result = fmt.Sprintf("%s::%s", getForce, result)
		} else if detectForce != "" {
			result = fmt.Sprintf("%s::%s", detectForce, result)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to c9def3e214)

Solutions

Replace the shorthand with a fully-qualified URL that includes the scheme (https://...) so the detector/re-parse step is bypassed.
Remove or escape special characters (spaces, control chars) in the subdir portion of the address.
If the source looks valid, simplify by dropping the '//subdir' part and test the base package address in isolation to isolate the bad segment.

Example fix

// before
module "x" { source = "github.com/user/repo//sub dir" }
// after
module "x" { source = "github.com/user/repo//sub-dir" }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

result, err := moduleaddrs.DetectRemoteSourceShorthands(src)
if err != nil {
    // Re-parse failed after a detector ran; fall back to a canonical URL.
    if u, e := url.Parse(src); e == nil && u.Scheme != "" {
        result = src
    } else {
        return err
    }
}

Prevention

Use fully-qualified URLs with an explicit scheme to bypass shorthand detection entirely.
Avoid special characters (spaces, control chars) in repo names and subdir segments.
Keep subdir segments simple and URL-safe.

When it happens

Trigger: A shorthand source (e.g. github.com/user/repo//subdir) where the detector-produced base URL plus an embedded subdir combine into a string url.Parse rejects, such as an unescaped space or control character in the repo/subdir portion that survived the detector but breaks re-parse.

Common situations: A module source with a subdir containing spaces or non-ASCII characters without escaping; copy-paste artifacts in the source string; rare detector edge cases.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@c9def3e214 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/077310f8524796cb. Report an issue: GitHub.