I have a really strange error that only manifests itself in the CI container.

$ pulumi $PULUMI_ACTION --logtostderr --non-interactive --diff -s $PULUMI_STACK
Previewing update (8g-sandbox):
[resource plugin kubernetes-3.23.0] installing
[resource plugin aws-5.16.2] installing
[resource plugin aws-5.30.1] installing
  pulumi:pulumi:Stack: (same)
    [urn=urn:pulumi:8g-sandbox::cr-eks::pulumi:pulumi:Stack::cr-eks-8g-sandbox]
@ previewing update....
Error: Failed to parse kubectl version JSON output. Received: : Error: Failed to parse kubectl version JSON output. Received: 
    at Object.assertCompatibleKubectlVersionExists (/snapshot/eks/bin/dependencies.js:46:15)
    at createCore (/snapshot/eks/bin/cluster.js:211:20)
    at createCluster (/snapshot/eks/bin/cluster.js:793:18)
    at new ClusterInternal (/snapshot/eks/bin/cluster.js:872:25)
    at Object.construct (/snapshot/eks/bin/cmd/provider/cluster.js:21:29)
    at Provider.construct (/snapshot/eks/bin/cmd/provider/index.js:129:100)
    at Server.<anonymous> (/snapshot/eks/node_modules/@pulumi/pulumi/provider/server.js:315:52)
    at Generator.next (<anonymous>)
    at fulfilled (/snapshot/eks/node_modules/@pulumi/pulumi/provider/server.js:18:58)
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
error: Program failed with an unhandled exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/root/.pulumi/bin/pulumi-language-python-exec", line 197, in <module>
    loop.run_until_complete(coro)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/asyncio/base_events.py", line 653, in run_until_complete
    return future.result()
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/builds/8gears/saas-factory/k8s/infra/aws/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pulumi/runtime/stack.py", line 136, in run_in_stack
    await run_pulumi_func(lambda: Stack(func))
  File "/builds/8gears/saas-factory/k8s/infra/aws/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pulumi/runtime/stack.py", line 51, in run_pulumi_func
    await wait_for_rpcs()
  File "/builds/8gears/saas-factory/k8s/infra/aws/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pulumi/runtime/stack.py", line 82, in wait_for_rpcs
    raise exn from cause
  File "/builds/8gears/saas-factory/k8s/infra/aws/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pulumi/runtime/rpc_manager.py", line 71, in rpc_wrapper
    result = await rpc
             ^^^^^^^^^
  File "/builds/8gears/saas-factory/k8s/infra/aws/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pulumi/runtime/resource.py", line 921, in do_register
    resp = await asyncio.get_event_loop().run_in_executor(None, do_rpc_call)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/concurrent/futures/thread.py", line 58, in run
    result = self.fn(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/builds/8gears/saas-factory/k8s/infra/aws/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pulumi/runtime/resource.py", line 918, in do_rpc_call
    handle_grpc_error(exn)
  File "/builds/8gears/saas-factory/k8s/infra/aws/.venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pulumi/runtime/settings.py", line 273, in handle_grpc_error
    raise grpc_error_to_exception(exn)
Exception: Failed to parse kubectl version JSON output. Received: 
Resources:
    31 unchanged

If I run the same container with the same args locally instead the UI, I don't get this error, so its super difficult to trace the issue.