lima-vm/lima · error

function takes at least one string argument

Error message

function takes at least one string argument

What it means

The "indent" template function requires at least one argument: the text to indent. Called with zero arguments it returns this error, which text/template surfaces as an execution error for the pipeline. It is a simple arity validation error from the function's variadic signature.

Source

Thrown at pkg/textutil/textutil.go:76

		var b bytes.Buffer
		enc := json.NewEncoder(&b)
		enc.SetEscapeHTML(false)
		if err := enc.Encode(v); err != nil {
			panic(fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal as JSON: %+v: %w", v, err))
		}
		return strings.TrimSuffix(b.String(), "\n")
	},
	"yaml": func(v any) string {
		var b bytes.Buffer
		enc := yaml.NewEncoder(&b)
		if err := enc.Encode(v); err != nil {
			panic(fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal as YAML: %+v: %w", v, err))
		}
		return "---\n" + strings.TrimSuffix(b.String(), "\n")
	},
	"indent": func(a ...any) (string, error) {
		if len(a) == 0 {
			return "", errors.New("function takes at least one string argument")
		}
		if len(a) > 2 {
			return "", errors.New("function takes at most 2 arguments")
		}
		var ok bool
		size := 2
		if len(a) > 1 {
			if size, ok = a[0].(int); !ok {
				return "", errors.New("optional first argument must be an integer")
			}
		}
		text := ""
		if text, ok = a[len(a)-1].(string); !ok {
			return "", errors.New("last argument must be a string")
		}
		return IndentString(size, text), nil
	},
	"missing": func(a ...any) (string, error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Add the required argument: use `{{indent 4 .SomeText}}` (optional size, then the string) or `{{indent .SomeText}}` for the default 2-space indent.
2. If the argument came from a data field, verify the value passed to ExecuteTemplate actually contains that field and is a string.
3. Check FuncHelp (`indent <size>: add spaces to beginning of each line`) for the expected usage.

Example fix

// before
{{ indent }}
// after
{{ indent 4 .StartupScript }}

// in the template, guard before use:
// {{ if .Text }}{{ indent 4 .Text }}{{ end }}
// or in Go, ensure the field is a non-empty string before ExecuteTemplate

func indentArgsValid(args ...any) bool {
    if len(args) == 0 || len(args) > 2 { return false }
    if len(args) == 2 {
        if _, ok := args[0].(int); !ok { return false }
    }
    _, ok := args[len(args)-1].(string)
    return ok
}

b, err := textutil.ExecuteTemplate(tmpl, data)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "function takes at least one string argument") {
        return fmt.Errorf("indent used with no argument in template: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: A template containing `{{indent}}` with no arguments — typically a mis-edit of an Ubuntu/cloud-config style template where the argument expression was deleted or evaluates to nothing because the data field is missing (a missing field in text/template yields no arguments for a variadic call only when written literally as no args; more commonly the author wrote {{indent}} instead of {{indent .Text}} or {{indent 4 .Text}}).

Common situations: Hand-editing Lima template YAML and accidentally deleting the argument; copy-pasting a template snippet that references custom fields the caller's data does not provide; typos like `{{ indent }}` while intending `{{ indent 2 .Value }}`.

Related errors

• function takes at most 2 arguments
• the file argument can be specified only for --check mode
• unexpected arguments %v
• can check only a single sudoers file
• --verbatim cannot be used with any of --embed, --embed-all,

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9354899d0b4daff2. Report an issue: GitHub.