kubernetes/kops · error

unable to parse JSON %v: %v

Error message

unable to parse JSON %v: %v

What it means

RunCreateSecretDockerConfig json.Unmarshals the read Docker config bytes to validate them; this fires when the content is not valid JSON. The file/stdin read succeeded, but the content fails JSON validation before being stored.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/create_secret_dockerconfig.go:125

	}

	var data []byte
	if options.DockerConfigPath == "-" {
		data, err = ConsumeStdin()
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("reading Docker config from stdin: %v", err)
		}
	} else {
		data, err = os.ReadFile(options.DockerConfigPath)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("reading Docker config %v: %v", options.DockerConfigPath, err)
		}
	}

	var parsedData map[string]interface{}
	err = json.Unmarshal(data, &parsedData)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to parse JSON %v: %v", options.DockerConfigPath, err)
	}

	secret := &fi.Secret{
		Data: data,
	}

	if !options.Force {
		_, created, err := secretStore.GetOrCreateSecret(ctx, "dockerconfig", secret)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("adding dockerconfig secret: %v", err)
		}
		if !created {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to create the dockerconfig secret as it already exists. Pass the `--force` flag to replace an existing secret")
		}
	} else {
		_, err := secretStore.ReplaceSecret("dockerconfig", secret)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("updating dockerconfig secret: %v", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Check the Docker config file for JSON syntax errors
2. Ensure the file is a Docker config.json (or its dockercfg JSON variant), not a YAML or text file
3. Validate with an external JSON linter and retry

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cmd/kops/create_secret_dockerconfig.go:125 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

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

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9c27f588b3c03acc. Report an issue: GitHub.