What causes "directory for JSON export does not exist: %s" in wagoodman/dive?

Create the directory first: mkdir -p $(dirname ) and rerun dive.

directory for JSON export does not exist: %s

Error message

directory for JSON export does not exist: %s

What it means

Raised in Export.PostLoad() during option loading when a --json/-j path is given and os.Stat reports its parent directory does not exist. This is an early fail-fast check so the analysis (which can be slow) is never started for a destination that cannot be written.

Source

Thrown at cmd/dive/cli/internal/options/export.go:35

type Export struct {
	// Path to export analysis results as JSON (empty string = disabled)
	JsonPath string `yaml:"json-path" json:"json-path" mapstructure:"json-path"`
}

func DefaultExport() Export {
	return Export{}
}

func (o *Export) AddFlags(flags clio.FlagSet) {
	flags.StringVarP(&o.JsonPath, "json", "j", "Skip the interactive TUI and write the layer analysis statistics to a given file.")
}

func (o *Export) PostLoad() error {

	if o.JsonPath != "" {
		dir := path.Dir(o.JsonPath)
		if _, err := os.Stat(dir); os.IsNotExist(err) {
			return fmt.Errorf("directory for JSON export does not exist: %s", dir)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6c691947f)

Solutions

Create the directory first: mkdir -p $(dirname <path>) and rerun dive.
Double-check the path string for typos and correct case on Linux.
Write to an existing directory (e.g. the current dir) if creating dirs is not an option.
In CI, add a 'mkdir -p artifacts' step before the dive step.

Example fix

# before
dive myimage --json reports/out.json  # reports/ missing

# after
mkdir -p reports && dive myimage --json reports/out.json

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

dir := path.Dir(opts.Export.JsonPath)
if _, err := os.Stat(dir); os.IsNotExist(err) {
    if mkErr := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0o755); mkErr != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("cannot create export dir: %w", mkErr)
    }
}

Prevention

Always mkdir -p the output directory in CI before the dive step.
Use --json out/report.json relative to the working directory.
Fail fast on path typos by validating paths in the pipeline script.

When it happens

Trigger: Running dive with --json pointing into a directory that does not exist, e.g. --json reports/out.json when reports/ has not been created, or a typo in the path (misspelled or wrong-case directory on case-sensitive filesystems).

Common situations: CI scripts assuming an artifacts directory pre-exists; fresh clones without the output folder; Windows-style paths on Linux; trailing components stripped by shell expansion.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of wagoodman/dive@d6c691947f (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6b3ad6029750f5f5. Report an issue: GitHub.