mislav/hub · error

%s is must be string but got %#v

Error message

%s is must be string but got %#v

What it means

After matching a known property name (user, oauth_token, protocol, unix_socket), the decoder asserts the property value is a string. If the value is a number, boolean, list, or map, the assignment fails and Decode returns this error with the property name and the raw value. All four known properties are string-typed on the Host struct.

Source

Thrown at github/config_decoder.go:69

		}
		host := &Host{Host: hostName}
		for _, prop := range v[0].(yaml.MapSlice) {
			propName, ok := prop.Key.(string)
			if !ok {
				return fmt.Errorf("property name is must be string but got %#v", prop.Key)
			}
			switch propName {
			case "user":
				host.User, ok = prop.Value.(string)
			case "oauth_token":
				host.AccessToken, ok = prop.Value.(string)
			case "protocol":
				host.Protocol, ok = prop.Value.(string)
			case "unix_socket":
				host.UnixSocket, ok = prop.Value.(string)
			}
			if !ok {
				return fmt.Errorf("%s is must be string but got %#v", propName, prop.Value)
			}
		}
		c.Hosts = append(c.Hosts, host)
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5c547ed804)

Solutions

1. Quote the value so it parses as a string: `oauth_token: "1234567890abcdef"`.
2. Ensure protocol is the string "https" or "http", not a boolean or number.
3. Remove unknown/non-string properties; only user, oauth_token, protocol, unix_socket are supported.

Example fix

// before (token parsed as int)
- oauth_token: 1234567890
// after
- oauth_token: "1234567890abcdef"

var raw map[string][]yaml.MapSlice
yaml.Unmarshal(data, &raw)
for _, entries := range raw {
    for _, m := range entries {
        for _, p := range m {
            if _, ok := p.Value.(string); !ok {
                log.Fatalf("property %v must be a quoted string, got %v (%T)", p.Key, p.Value, p.Value)
            }
        }
    }
}

func isStringPropValue(v interface{}) bool {
    _, ok := v.(string)
    return ok
}

if err := cfg.Decode(data); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "is must be string but got") {
        return fmt.Errorf("quote string property values in hub config: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: A host property value that is not a string, e.g. `oauth_token: 12345` (parsed as int), `protocol: true`, or a nested map/list value for user.

Common situations: Numeric OAuth tokens pasted unquoted; YAML booleans from unquoted `yes`/`no`/`true`; hand-edited configs adding wrong-typed values.

Related errors

• host name is must be string but got %#v
• property name is must be string but got %#v
• value of host entry is must be array but got %#v
• Please set $BROWSER to a web launcher
• Error: couldn't detect shell type. Please specify your shell

AI-assisted analysis of mislav/hub@5c547ed804 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c3858069e86535c. Report an issue: GitHub.