diff --git a/cmd/gsap-attestor/main.go b/cmd/gsap-attestor/main.go
index 726a79f..7598344 100644
--- a/cmd/gsap-attestor/main.go
+++ b/cmd/gsap-attestor/main.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"fmt"
 	"sync"
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/hcl/v2/hclsimple"
@@ -41,12 +42,15 @@ func (p *Plugin) Attest(ctx context.Context, req *workloadattestorv1.AttestReque
 
 func decodeConfig(data string) (GsapAttestorConfig, error) {
 	var cfg GsapAttestorConfig
-	if err := hclsimple.Decode("plugin.json", []byte(data), nil, &cfg); err != nil {
-		if err2 := hclsimple.Decode("plugin.hcl", []byte(data), nil, &cfg); err2 != nil {
-			return cfg, err2
-		}
+	jsonErr := hclsimple.Decode("plugin.json", []byte(data), nil, &cfg)
+	if jsonErr == nil {
+		return cfg, nil
 	}
-	return cfg, nil
+	hclErr := hclsimple.Decode("plugin.hcl", []byte(data), nil, &cfg)
+	if hclErr == nil {
+		return cfg, nil
+	}
+	return cfg, fmt.Errorf("json: %v; hcl: %v; raw input: %q", jsonErr, hclErr, data)
 }
 
 func (p *Plugin) Configure(_ context.Context, req *configv1.ConfigureRequest) (*configv1.ConfigureResponse, error) {