hashicorp/terraform · critical

unrecognized status: %s

Error message

unrecognized status: %s

What it means

colorizeTestStatus (internal/command/views/test.go:788) switches over moduletest.Status and panics 'unrecognized status' for values other than Error/Fail/Pass/Skip/Pending. moduletest.Status is an iota enum (status.go:19-25) with exactly those five members; the function renders the ANSI-colored label for the human view.

Source

Thrown at internal/command/views/test.go:790

func (t *TestJSON) TFCRetryHook(attemptNum int, resp *http.Response) {
	t.view.log.Error(
		t.RetryLogHook(attemptNum, resp, false),
		"type", json.MessageTestRetry,
	)
}

func colorizeTestStatus(status moduletest.Status, color *colorstring.Colorize) string {
	switch status {
	case moduletest.Error, moduletest.Fail:
		return color.Color("[red]fail[reset]")
	case moduletest.Pass:
		return color.Color("[green]pass[reset]")
	case moduletest.Skip:
		return color.Color("[light_gray]skip[reset]")
	case moduletest.Pending:
		return color.Color("[light_gray]pending[reset]")
	default:
		panic("unrecognized status: " + status.String())
	}
}

func testStatus(status moduletest.Status) string {
	switch status {
	case moduletest.Error, moduletest.Fail:
		return "fail"
	case moduletest.Pass:
		return "pass"
	case moduletest.Skip:
		return "skip"
	case moduletest.Pending:
		return "pending"
	default:
		panic("unrecognized status: " + status.String())
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d32a084675)

Solutions

1. When adding a moduletest.Status constant, update colorizeTestStatus and testStatus (and json.ToTestStatus) in the same change.
2. Add an exhaustive test over all Status constants through both rendering helpers.
3. Validate Status is within range before it reaches the view layer.
4. As an end user, report the internal bug with the 'terraform test' output.

func validStatus(s moduletest.Status) bool {
    switch s {
    case moduletest.Pending, moduletest.Skip, moduletest.Pass, moduletest.Fail, moduletest.Error:
        return true
    }
    return false
}
if !validStatus(status) {
    return "" // or return an error to the caller
}

When it happens

Trigger: colorizeTestStatus receives a moduletest.Status outside the five defined constants — only possible if a new Status member is added without updating this switch, or a zero/uninitialised Status reaches rendering (note: Pending is handled, so zero-value is safe).

Common situations: Adding a new test status (e.g. 'Warning') and forgetting the colorize branch; a regression producing an out-of-range Status integer.

Related errors

• unrecognized test progress: %s
• (*StateMigrateHuman)LogStateMigrationErrored: called incorre
• unknown view type %v
• unknown view type %v
• missing message for InstallingProviderMessage init message c

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@d32a084675 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/812048e1f16cde89. Report an issue: GitHub.