lima-vm/lima · error

expected tag

Error message

expected tag

What it means

snapshotCreateAction requires a non-empty --tag flag naming the snapshot to create; when --tag is missing or empty it returns "expected tag" before calling snapshot.Save. The tag is the identifier passed to the guest's snapshot management (qemu-style snapshot naming).

Source

Thrown at cmd/limactl/snapshot.go:79

	return createCmd
}

func snapshotCreateAction(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
	ctx := cmd.Context()
	instName := args[0]

	inst, err := store.Inspect(ctx, instName)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	tag, err := cmd.Flags().GetString("tag")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if tag == "" {
		return errors.New("expected tag")
	}

	return snapshot.Save(ctx, inst, tag)
}

func newSnapshotDeleteCommand() *cobra.Command {
	deleteCmd := &cobra.Command{
		Use:     "delete INSTANCE",
		Aliases: []string{"del"},
		Short:   "Delete (del) a snapshot",
		Example: `  Delete a snapshot:
  $ limactl snapshot delete default --tag snap1
`,
		Args:              cobra.MinimumNArgs(1),
		RunE:              snapshotDeleteAction,
		ValidArgsFunction: snapshotBashComplete,
	}
	deleteCmd.Flags().String("tag", "", "Name of the snapshot")

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Pass a tag: `limactl snapshot create <instance> --tag my-snap`
2. In scripts, default the variable: TAG=${TAG:-snap-$(date +%s)}
3. Run `limactl snapshot create --help` to confirm flag names

Example fix

// before
limactl snapshot create myinstance
// after
limactl snapshot create myinstance --tag snapshot-1

[ -n "$TAG" ] || { echo 'usage: limactl snapshot create <inst> --tag <name>' >&2; exit 2; }

limactl snapshot create "$inst" --tag "$TAG" || { limactl snapshot create --help; exit 1; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `limactl snapshot create <instance>` without `--tag <name>`, or with `--tag ""`.

Common situations: Forgetting the flag in scripts; shell variable holding the tag expanding to empty; mixing up positional args and flags.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• network mode %#q requires specifying gateway
• unknown header: %s
• instance %q not found
• disk format %#q not supported, use `qcow2` or `raw` instead
• failed to check if the autostart entry for instance %#q is r

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b9caba660327f340. Report an issue: GitHub.