wagoodman/dive · error

no results returned

Error message

no results returned

What it means

Returned by the analyzer adapter when the underlying image analyzer call returns (nil analysis, nil error) — a contract violation where the analysis succeeded but produced no result object. It is a defensive guard so callers never receive a nil *image.Analysis with a nil error, which would panic later during evaluation or export. In practice it usually masks an upstream resolution failure (e.g. no image payload could be read).

Solutions

1. Verify the image actually exists and has content: docker images / docker save the image and check its size
2. Re-pull the image (--source docker with a fresh pull) to rule out a corrupted local cache
3. Try the other source flag (--source podman or docker) to isolate an engine-specific extraction bug
4. Check dive version against the engine version; upgrade dive if the analyzer backend is stale

// before analyzing, verify the image has analyzable content
if img == nil || len(img.Layers) == 0 {
    return fmt.Errorf("image has no layers to analyze: %s", img.Request)
}
analysis, err := adapter.NewAnalyzer().Analyze(ctx, img)

analysis, err := adapter.NewAnalyzer().Analyze(ctx, img)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no results returned") {
        // nil,nil contract violation upstream: re-pull or report image manifest
        log.Printf("analyzer returned nothing for %s; re-pulling", img.Request)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling adapter.Analyze(ctx, img) where the analyzer implementation returns nil, nil — for example when the image has no layers to analyze, an unsupported/empty manifest, or an analyzer backend that silently bails out.

Common situations: Analyzing a scratch or distroless-style image with a container engine that returns metadata but no file tree; a docker/podman version mismatch where the engine returns an empty layer payload; or a corrupted local image cache.

Related errors

• cannot analyze image
• cannot build image
• cannot determine image provider for build
• cannot determine image provider to fetch from
• cannot load image

AI-assisted analysis of wagoodman/dive@d6c691947f (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/82060607861325de. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at cmd/dive/cli/internal/command/adapter/analyzer.go:64

			Default:      "Analyzing image",
			WhileRunning: "Analyzing image",
			OnSuccess:    "Analyzed image",
		},
		HideOnSuccess:      false,
		HideStageOnSuccess: false,
		ID:                 img.Request,
		Context:            fmt.Sprintf("[layers:%d files:%s size:%s]", layers, filesStr, fileSizeStr),
	})

	analysis, err := a.Analyzer(ctx, img)
	if err != nil {
		mon.SetError(err)
	} else {
		mon.SetCompleted()
	}

	if err == nil && analysis == nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("no results returned")
	}

	return analysis, err
}

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