WakaTime Error: "failed to parse config files: failed to load configuration file: failed to merge config file: While parsing config: key-value delimiter not found"

[mareszhar]

About a month ago, WakaTime stopped working for me.

I use WakaTime in vscode, windsurf, and cursor (all vscode-based IDEs) and, whenever I launch them, I see in the status bar WakaTime: Calculating time spent today in the background... for a long while, and then WakaTime Error.

Following the debugging steps, these are the full error messages that appear in the development console:

workbench.desktop.main.js:2284 [Extension Host] [WakaTime][ERROR] {"level":"error","now":"2025-03-01T18:06:24-04:00","caller":"cmd/run.go:60","func":"github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli/cmd.RunE","message":"failed to parse config files: failed to load configuration file: failed to merge config file: While parsing config: key-value delimiter not found: cli\n","version":"v1.112.1","os/arch":"darwin/arm64"}

workbench.desktop.main.js:2284 [Extension Host] [WakaTime][ERROR] Error: Command failed: /Users/mares/.wakatime/wakatime-cli-darwin-arm64 --entity /Users/mares/.wakatime.cfg --plugin "cursor/1.96.2 vscode-wakatime/25.0.0" --lineno 1 --cursorpos 11 --lines-in-file 3 --alternate-project repo-name --project-folder /Users/mares/path/to/repo-name

workbench.desktop.main.js:2284 [Extension Host] [WakaTime][ERROR] Config parsing error (103); Check your /Users/mares/.wakatime/wakatime.log file for more details

My full .wakatime.cfg file looks like this:

[settings] 
api_key = waka_my-api-key 
debug = true

And the most recent logs in wakatime.log don't appear to alert of any errors:

{"level":"debug","now":"2025-03-01T17:50:11-04:00","caller":"cmd/run.go:102","func":"github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli/cmd.RunE","message":"command: version","version":"v1.112.1","os/arch":"darwin/arm64"}
{"level":"debug","now":"2025-03-01T17:50:13-04:00","caller":"cmd/run.go:120","func":"github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli/cmd.RunE","message":"command: today","version":"v1.112.1","os/arch":"darwin/arm64"}
{"level":"debug","now":"2025-03-01T17:50:13-04:00","caller":"today/today.go:33","func":"github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli/cmd/today.Run","message":"successfully fetched today for status bar","version":"v1.112.1","os/arch":"darwin/arm64"}
{"level":"debug","now":"2025-03-01T17:58:57-04:00","caller":"cmd/run.go:102","func":"github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli/cmd.RunE","message":"command: version","version":"v1.112.1","os/arch":"darwin/arm64"}
{"level":"debug","now":"2025-03-01T17:58:57-04:00","caller":"cmd/run.go:120","func":"github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli/cmd.RunE","message":"command: today","version":"v1.112.1","os/arch":"darwin/arm64"}
{"level":"debug","now":"2025-03-01T17:58:57-04:00","caller":"today/today.go:33","func":"github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli/cmd/today.Run","message":"successfully fetched today for status bar","version":"v1.112.1","os/arch":"darwin/arm64"}

WakaTime has worked great for me for years, so I don't know why it suddenly stopped working this year. Please let me know if there's any additional info I can provide to help troubleshoot this.

Thank you so much for reading and for your time. I appreciate any help! ❤