No errors shown for invalid zowe config file

[jt-nti]

Describe the bug

Thanks to user error, when trying to edit a config file to add a cics profile, I missed out a "profiles" key, which prevented the profile showing up in vscode, or working on the cli. Confusingly, there were no obvious errors, either validation errors, or other errors in the UI or on the cli.

This is valid, and what I should have created, with "cics" inside "profiles" in the "example" parent profile:

{
    "$schema": "./zowe.schema.json",
    "profiles": {
        "example": {
            "properties": {
                "host": "example.com"
            },
            "profiles": {
                "cics": {
                    "type": "cics",
                    "properties": {
                        "port": 1490,
                        "protocol": "https"
                    }
                }
            },
            "secure": [
                "user",
                "password"
            ]
        }
    },
    "defaults": {
        "cics": "example.cics"
    },
    "autoStore": true
}

This is also valid, but it shouldn't be!

{
    "$schema": "./zowe.schema.json",
    "profiles": {
        "example": {
            "properties": {
                "host": "example.com"
            },
            "cics": {
                "type": "cics",
                "properties": {
                    "port": 1490,
                    "protocol": "https"
                }
            },
            "secure": [
                "user",
                "password"
            ]
        }
    },
    "defaults": {
        "cics": "example.cics"
    },
    "autoStore": true
}

Expected and actual results

I expect to see errors if I get the zowe config wrong so that I can fix the problems and connect to the services I want to.

In this case there are no errors.

Unfortunately the ambiguous overloaded use of "profiles" in the current config files makes this kind of mistake more likely, and I think it also makes validation tricky. Distinguishing between profiles and services might be helpful in both cases, e.g.

{
    "$schema": "./zowe.schema.json",
    "profiles": {
        "example": {
            "properties": {
                "host": "example.com"
            },
            "services": {
                "cics": {
                    "type": "cics",
                    "properties": {
                        "port": 1490,
                        "protocol": "https"
                    }
                }
            },
            "secure": [
                "user",
                "password"
            ]
        }
    },
    "defaults": {
        "cics": "example.cics"
    },
    "autoStore": true
}

Describe your environment

CLI Version: 8.31.0
Zowe Release Version: v3.4.1

@zowe/cics-for-zowe-cli@6.20.0
@zowe/zos-ftp-for-zowe-cli@3.0.0

v24.14.1

11.11.0

Linux c6e408a1dda1 6.6.119-0-virt #1-Alpine SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC 2025-12-10 08:04:08 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

bash

Additional context

[github-actions]

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[ATorrise]

Hi @jt-nti just wanted to reach out and link you to a project I have about validating config files. it doesn't fix the config for you but it points out invalid profiles so you can troubleshoot and be aware of any inconsistencies https://github.com/ATorrise/zowe-config-inspector

forewarning it's not perfect and not officially apart of zowe yet, but i am on the zowe cli, znp and vsce teams. you can install it via a vsix

[jt-nti]

Hi @ATorrise, thank you for the link, I'll definitely check that out!