lima-vm/lima · error

the YAML is invalid, attempted to save the buffer as %#q but

Error message

the YAML is invalid, attempted to save the buffer as %#q but failed: %w

What it means

Thrown by `saveRejectedYAML` when the edited instance YAML failed validation AND lima also failed to write the rejected buffer to `lima.REJECTED.yaml` in the current directory. The write error and the original validation error are joined with `errors.Join` so both causes are visible. Lima saves rejected YAML so users can recover their edits, and this error indicates even that recovery dump failed.

Source

Thrown at cmd/limactl/edit.go:229

func askWhetherToStart(cmd *cobra.Command) (bool, error) {
	isTTY := uiutil.InputIsTTY(cmd.InOrStdin())
	if isTTY {
		message := "Do you want to start the instance now? "
		return uiutil.Confirm(message, true)
	}
	return false, nil
}

func editBashComplete(cmd *cobra.Command, _ []string, _ string) ([]string, cobra.ShellCompDirective) {
	return bashCompleteInstanceNames(cmd)
}

// saveRejectedYAML writes the rejected config and returns an error.
func saveRejectedYAML(y []byte, origErr error) error {
	rejectedYAML := "lima.REJECTED.yaml"
	if writeErr := os.WriteFile(rejectedYAML, y, 0o644); writeErr != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("the YAML is invalid, attempted to save the buffer as %#q but failed: %w", rejectedYAML, errors.Join(writeErr, origErr))
	}
	// TODO: may need to support editing the rejected YAML
	return fmt.Errorf("the YAML is invalid, saved the buffer as %#q: %w", rejectedYAML, origErr)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Fix the write problem: run limactl from a writable directory (`cd ~`) or `sudo chown`/remove the stale `lima.REJECTED.yaml`.
2. Free disk space if the disk is full, then retry.
3. Read the joined cause at the end of the message to also fix the underlying YAML validation error (invalid field, bad value) and re-edit.
4. Recover manually: re-run the edit, keep a copy of the YAML in a temp file (`limactl edit <inst>` uses $EDITOR; or copy the instance's lima.yaml from ~/.lima/<inst>/lima.yaml) before editing.

Example fix

// before (in non-writable dir)
$ cd /etc && limactl edit myvm
FATA ... the YAML is invalid, attempted to save the buffer as "lima.REJECTED.yaml" but failed: permission denied + field must be set

// after
$ cd ~ && limactl edit myvm   # writable cwd; rejected YAML can be saved

// Ensure the cwd is writable before running edit:
if err := os.WriteFile(".lima-write-test", nil, 0o644); err != nil {
    os.Chdir(homeDir()) // move to a writable directory
} else {
    os.Remove(".lima-write-test")
}

if err := runEdit(inst); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "attempted to save the buffer as") {
        // both write failure and validation failure are joined via errors.Join
        for _, cause := range errors.Unwrap Multi(err) { ... }
        // retry from a writable directory
        return retryEditFromWritableDir(inst)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `limactl edit`, `limactl clone`/`rename`, `limactl restart --edit`, or applying a yq expression, where the new YAML fails `limayaml.Validate` and `os.WriteFile("lima.REJECTED.yaml", ...)` fails due to filesystem permission or disk issues.

Common situations: Read-only current working directory or running from a directory the user cannot write to; disk full; SELinux/AppArmor denying writes; the file lima.REJECTED.yaml exists with root ownership from a previous root-run attempt.

Related errors

• the YAML is invalid, saved the buffer as %#q: %w
• failed to validate YAML file %#q: %w
• disk format %#q not supported, use `qcow2` or `raw` instead
• invalid port forward format %#q, expected HOST:GUEST or HOST
• invalid port forward format %#q, expected HOST:GUEST

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3c05df053e452b9. Report an issue: GitHub.