gohugoio/hugo · error

failed to get %q: %w

Error message

failed to get %q: %w

What it means

Returned by Hugo's module Client.get when `go get <args>` fails. Hugo shells out to the Go toolchain to add or update module dependencies (e.g. via `hugo mod get`), and this wraps any non-zero exit from that command with the arguments that were passed.

Source

Thrown at modules/client.go:358

			} else if update && patch {
				args = append(args, "-u=patch")
			}
			args = append(args, m)

			if err := c.get(args...); err != nil {
				return err
			}
		}

		return nil
	}

	return c.get(args...)
}

func (c *Client) get(args ...string) error {
	if err := c.runGo(context.Background(), c.logger.StdOut(), append([]string{"get"}, args...)...); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to get %q: %w", args, err)
	}
	return nil
}

// Init initializes this as a Go Module with the given path.
// If path is empty, Go will try to guess.
// If this succeeds, this project will be marked as Go Module.
func (c *Client) Init(path string) error {
	err := c.runGo(context.Background(), c.logger.StdOut(), "mod", "init", path)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to init modules: %w", err)
	}

	c.GoModulesFilename = filepath.Join(c.ccfg.WorkingDir, goModFilename)

	return nil
}

View on GitHub ↗ (pinned to 8a468df065)

Solutions

1. Verify the module path and version exist (`go list -m -versions <path>`).
2. Run `hugo mod init <path>` first if the project has no go.mod.
3. For private repos, set GOPRIVATE and configure git credentials.
4. Check network/proxy access to proxy.golang.org or set GOPROXY.
5. Upgrade the Go toolchain if the error mentions an unsupported go version.

Example fix

# before
hugo mod get github.com/user/theme-typo
# after
hugo mod init github.com/me/mysite
hugo mod get github.com/user/theme@v1.2.0

// verify module path is well-formed before calling Get
if err := module.CheckPath(modPath); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid module path %q: %w", modPath, err)
}

if err := client.Get(modPath); err != nil {
    var execErr *exec.ExitError
    if errors.As(err, &execErr) {
        // go mod get failed — inspect stderr, likely bad path/version or network
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `hugo mod get [-u] <module>` or Client.Get when `go get` exits non-zero: unresolvable module path, no matching version, network/proxy failure, missing go.mod in the project, or a Go binary too old for the module's go directive.

Common situations: Typos in module paths in `hugo mod get`, private repos without GOPRIVATE/credentials configured, corporate proxies blocking proxy.golang.org, running outside a directory initialized with `hugo mod init`, or an outdated Go installation.

Related errors

• failed to download module %s@%s: %w
• failed to decode module download result: %w
• failed to download modules: %w
• failed to decode modules list: %w
• failed to init modules: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gohugoio/hugo@8a468df065 (2026-07-31). Data as JSON: /data/errors/e507b7bf259eda65.json. Report an issue: GitHub ↗.