# Temporal workflow describe can't parse json result

**URL:** https://community.temporal.io/t/temporal-workflow-describe-cant-parse-json-result/12108
**Category:** Community Support
**Tags:** cli
**Created:** [May 14, 2024, 8:11pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/temporal-workflow-describe-cant-parse-json-result/12108 "2024-05-14T20:11:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![karney](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/karney/32/3032_2.png) [@karney](https://community.temporal.io/u/karney)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2024, 8:11pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/temporal-workflow-describe-cant-parse-json-result/12108/1 "2024-05-14T20:11:35Z")

</div>

when running `temporal workflow describe` or `temporal workflow query` the json result causes the the temporal CLI to output an error similar to this (the temporal UI is able to display the object fine, it’s not a big object):

```auto
Execution Info:
  WorkflowId c3fc3c77-8c06-44db-b7ff-ed9fb88b322c
  RunId 1b5e98d9-3d97-4991-af9e-08b9cb3ef029
  Type MyWorkflow
  Namespace default
  TaskQueue default
  StartTime 16 minutes ago
  CloseTime 14 minutes ago
  ExecutionTime 16 minutes ago
  SearchAttributes map[BuildIds:metadata:{key:"encoding" value:"json/plain"} metadata:{key:"type" value:"KeywordList"} data:"[\"unversioned\"]"]
  StateTransitionCount 31
  HistoryLength 47
  HistorySize 222415

Results:
  RunTime 1m24.31s
  Status COMPLETED
  Result <failed converting to string: json: error calling MarshalJSON for type json.RawMessage: invalid character ':' after object key:value pair>

```

The query returns the same object and it also emits the same error:

```auto
Query result:
  QueryResult <failed converting to string: json: error calling MarshalJSON for type json.RawMessage: invalid character ':' after object key:value pair>

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![karney](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/karney/32/3032_2.png) [@karney](https://community.temporal.io/u/karney)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/temporal-workflow-describe-cant-parse-json-result/12108/2 "2024-05-14T20:14:10Z")

</div>

I’ve had to resort to using `--no-json-shorthand-payloads` to get the base64 encoded string and decode it to json myself. The object is not a complicated object. but there’s a `null` value for one of the keys. seems to work fine for other payloads.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Chad\_Retz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/chad_retz/32/1396_2.png) [@Chad\_Retz](https://community.temporal.io/u/Chad_Retz)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2024, 9:20pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/temporal-workflow-describe-cant-parse-json-result/12108/3 "2024-05-14T21:20:23Z")

</div>

Thanks! We have fixed this in [Fix shorthand payload marshaling when `null` is present by tdeebswihart · Pull Request #159 · temporalio/api-go · GitHub](https://github.com/temporalio/api-go/pull/159) but have not rolled out a new CLI version with this fix yet. Will look into doing so soon. I have opened [[Feature Request] Update Go API · Issue #562 · temporalio/cli · GitHub](https://github.com/temporalio/cli/issues/562).