karatelabs/karate · warning

Failed to load pom:

Error message

Failed to load pom: 

What it means

`karate run` optionally loads a pom.xml (via KaratePom.load) to augment classpath/config resolution. If parsing fails, the CLI prints 'Failed to load pom: <message>' as a warning and continues the run without the pom data; the exception is not rethrown. Malformed or unsupported pom structure degrades the run but does not abort it.

Solutions

1. Read the appended e.getMessage() in the warning to identify the parse failure
2. Validate the pom.xml with `mvn -q validate` or an XML parser and fix the malformed section
3. Move/rename the invalid pom.xml out of the run directory if it is not needed
4. Regenerate the pom (e.g. re-run the failed Maven build) and rerun `karate run`

Example fix

// before
<project><build></project> <!-- truncated pom -->
// after
mvn -q validate   # fix XML, then
karate run        # "pom.xml loaded"

// before karate run
python3 -c "import xml.dom.minidom,sys; xml.dom.minidom.parse('pom.xml')" && echo 'pom XML valid' || echo 'pom malformed'

karate run ... 2>&1 | tee run.log; grep 'Failed to load pom' run.log && echo 'pom ignored — fix pom.xml'

When it happens

Trigger: Running `karate run` in a directory (or with a resolved path) containing a pom.xml that is unparseable XML or structurally invalid for KaratePom.load — e.g. truncated file, wrong root element, encoding issues.

Common situations: Partial/failed Maven build leaving a corrupt pom; pointing Karate at a non-Maven project's XML file named pom.xml; pom generated by a tool with features KaratePom doesn't understand.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Config file not found": what it means and how to fix it in docker-sync, Maven, Vagrant, Turborepo and other tools — this error's family across 60 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to clean:
• Failed to clean: karate-temp
• Failed to clean output directory:

AI-assisted analysis of karatelabs/karate@a22eb90246 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fbcfa236d915fc93. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at karate-core/src/main/java/io/karatelabs/cli/RunCommand.java:350

    }

    private void loadPom() {
        String file = pomFile != null ? pomFile : DEFAULT_POM_FILE;
        Path pomPath;

        // If workdir specified, look for pom there
        if (workingDir != null) {
            pomPath = Path.of(workingDir).resolve(file);
        } else {
            pomPath = Path.of(file);
        }

        if (Files.exists(pomPath)) {
            try {
                pom = KaratePom.load(pomPath);
                Console.println(Console.info(pomPath.getFileName() + " loaded"));
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Console.println(Console.warn("Failed to load pom: " + e.getMessage()));
            }
        }
    }

    private List<String> resolvePaths() {
        List<String> combined = new ArrayList<>();
        if (paths != null) {
            combined.addAll(paths);
        }
        if (pathOptions != null) {
            combined.addAll(pathOptions);
        }
        if (!combined.isEmpty()) {
            return combined;
        }
        if (pom != null && !pom.getPaths().isEmpty()) {
            return pom.getPaths();
        }

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