Failure: branch is not main

[doriable]

When running a buf command, such as buf lint on a buildable module, I am getting an error, Failure: branch is not main. What does this mean and why?

[doriable]

The reason this is occurring is because on old versions of the buf CLI, specifically versions older than v1.0.0-rc10, there is validation to check for the branch of a repository. The past feature known as branch is no longer supported and is omitted from the buf.lock when resolving dependencies, so there is an incompatibility between modules managed by the older versions of the CLI that still validate this field.

The recommended fix for this is the update your buf CLI. Also, ensure that your CI and/or buf-setup-action is also updated accordingly.

Past issues that reference this:

• buf-lint-action faills if branch is not main.  buf-lint-action#15
• Failure: branch is not main. #1068
• Buf Generate Failure in Docker Container #1020