mikefarah/yq · error

hcl parse error: %w

Error message

hcl parse error: %w

What it means

The HCL decoder's Init fed the whole input to hclsyntax.ParseConfig and the hashicorp/hcl parser returned diagnostics containing at least one error, meaning the input is not syntactically valid HCL. The %w wraps hcl's own diagnostics, which carry line/column detail of the first syntax fault.

Source

Thrown at pkg/yqlib/decoder_hcl.go:118

		for i >= 0 && (src[i] == ' ' || src[i] == '\t' || src[i] == '\n' || src[i] == '\r') {
			i--
		}
	}

	if len(comments) > 0 {
		return strings.Join(comments, "\n")
	}
	return ""
}

func (dec *hclDecoder) Init(reader io.Reader) error {
	data, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	file, diags := hclsyntax.ParseConfig(data, "input.hcl", hcl.Pos{Line: 1, Column: 1})
	if diags != nil && diags.HasErrors() {
		return fmt.Errorf("hcl parse error: %w", diags)
	}
	dec.file = file
	dec.fileBytes = data
	dec.readAnything = false
	dec.documentIndex = 0
	return nil
}

func (dec *hclDecoder) Decode() (*CandidateNode, error) {
	if dec.readAnything {
		return nil, io.EOF
	}
	dec.readAnything = true

	if dec.file == nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("no hcl file parsed")
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 8b5af0694b)

Solutions

1. Fix the HCL syntax error reported in the wrapped diagnostics (check line/column)
2. Ensure the input file is actually HCL and not JSON/YAML in disguise
3. Pass the correct format flag (e.g. --from hcl) if yq auto-detected the wrong format
4. Validate the file with a dedicated HCL linter before piping it to yq

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pkg/yqlib/decoder_hcl.go:118 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 mikefarah/yq@8b5af0694b (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e0b8692288872c8f. Report an issue: GitHub.