diff --git a/pkg/engine/funcs.go b/pkg/engine/funcs.go
index e03c13b38..15cd87232 100644
--- a/pkg/engine/funcs.go
+++ b/pkg/engine/funcs.go
@@ -150,7 +150,8 @@ func fromYAMLArray(str string) []any {
 }
 
 // toTOML takes an interface, marshals it to toml, and returns a string.
-// On marshal error it returns the error string.
+// On marshal error it returns an empty string (errors are swallowed),
+// consistent with toYAML and toJSON.
 //
 // This is designed to be called from a template. Use mustToToml if you need
 // the template to fail hard on marshal errors.
@@ -159,7 +160,8 @@ func toTOML(v any) string {
 	e := toml.NewEncoder(b)
 	err := e.Encode(v)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err.Error()
+		// Swallow errors inside of a template.
+		return ""
 	}
 	return b.String()
 }
diff --git a/pkg/engine/funcs_test.go b/pkg/engine/funcs_test.go
index be9d0153f..3348dbbc4 100644
--- a/pkg/engine/funcs_test.go
+++ b/pkg/engine/funcs_test.go
@@ -166,6 +166,10 @@ keyInElement1 = "valueInElement1"`,
 		tpl:    `{{ mustToToml . }}`,
 		expect: "foo = \"bar\"\n", // should succeed and return TOML string
 		vars:   map[string]string{"foo": "bar"},
+	}, {
+		tpl:    `{{ toToml . }}`,
+		expect: "",                       // should return empty string and swallow error (not err.Error())
+		vars:   map[int]string{1: "one"}, // non-string key is invalid in TOML
 	},
 	}