What causes "style checks failed" in vectordotdev/vector?

Fix the files/lines listed in the output above the error (remove trailing spaces).

style checks failed

Error message

style checks failed

What it means

`style::check` scans eligible files for style violations such as trailing whitespace; if any file failed, it sets `failed = true`, prints per-file diagnostics first, and then bails with the summary message "style checks failed". It is the enforcement point of `vdev check style` used in CI.

Solutions

Fix the files/lines listed in the output above the error (remove trailing spaces).
Run an automated cleanup, e.g. `sed -i 's/[[:space:]]*$//' <files>` or your editor's 'trim trailing whitespace' action.
Enable strip-trailing-whitespace-on-save in your editor to prevent recurrence.
Re-run `vdev check style` to confirm it passes.

Example fix

// before: docs/example.md line 42 ends with two spaces
See the docs.  
// after
See the docs.
// or bulk-fix
$ sed -i 's/[[:space:]]*$//' docs/example.md

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# strip trailing whitespace from all tracked files before running the check
git ls-files -z | xargs -0 sed -i 's/[[:space:]]*$//'

Try / catch

if let Err(e) = style_check() {
    if e.to_string() == "style checks failed" {
        eprintln!("see the listed files/lines above; trim trailing spaces and re-run");
    }
}

Prevention

Enable trim-trailing-whitespace-on-save in your editor.
Add a pre-commit hook that strips trailing spaces.
Run `vdev check style` locally before pushing.
Avoid pasting raw terminal/diff output into docs without cleanup.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `vdev check style` (or check_all which calls it) when one or more tracked files contain trailing spaces on any line; the offending files and line numbers are printed before the bail.

Common situations: Committing code edited in an editor without strip-trailing-whitespace, pasting terminal output or diff text into markdown files, or generating files in a script that appends spaces.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vectordotdev/vector@bdb87aeaa4 (2026-09-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/369c687d143c3b07. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at vdev/src/commands/style.rs:93

        }
        if issues.crlf {
            println!("File \"{file}\" contains CRLF line breaks instead of LF line breaks");
            failed = true;
        }
        if !issues.trailing_spaces.is_empty() {
            let lines = issues
                .trailing_spaces
                .iter()
                .map(usize::to_string)
                .collect::<Vec<_>>()
                .join(", ");
            println!("File \"{file}\" contains trailing spaces on line(s): {lines}");
            failed = true;
        }
    }

    if failed {
        bail!("style checks failed");
    }

    Ok(())
}

fn eligible_files(files: Vec<String>) -> Vec<String> {
    files
        .into_iter()
        .filter(|file| {
            !IGNORED_PATHS.iter().any(|pattern| pattern.matches(file))
                && fs::symlink_metadata(file).is_ok_and(|metadata| metadata.file_type().is_file())
        })
        .collect()
}

fn inspect(contents: &[u8]) -> Issues {
    let mut issues = Issues {
        missing_newline: !contents.is_empty() && !contents.ends_with(b"\n"),

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