What is Unexpected token a in JSON at position 0?

I am getting an error that says SyntaxError: Unexpected token a in JSON at position 0 and I cannot find any information on what “a” means. I know that the JSON is not undefined. Can anyone help me understand what is causing this error?

Here is the code block that is causing the error:

let db_creds = await getDBCredentials();
console.log(db_creds)
const pool = new Pool(JSON.parse(db_creds['SecretString']));
console.log(pool)

Answer

Unexpected Token < in JSON at Position 0. From time to time when working with JSON data, you might stumble into errors regarding JSON formatting. For instance, if you try to parse a malformed JSON with the JSON. … json() method on the fetch object, it can result in a JavaScript exception being thrown.

What Is JSON and How to Handle an “Unexpected Token” Error