Netflix/chaosmonkey · error

Unknown grouping

Error message

Unknown grouping: %s

What it means

spinnaker.FromJSON parses a Spinnaker JSON app representation into a chaosmonkey.AppConfig. When the app is enabled ("enabled": true), the "grouping" field must be one of "app", "stack", or "cluster"; any other value (including an empty string) causes this error. If the app is disabled, an unspecified/invalid grouping is tolerated and the default (cluster) is used.

Solutions

1. Set "grouping" in attributes.chaosMonkey to one of "app", "stack", or "cluster" (values are lowercase and case-sensitive)
2. If the app should not have Chaos Monkey enabled, set "enabled": false — then grouping may be omitted
3. Check the JSON for typos/extra whitespace in the grouping value
4. If grouping is intentionally absent, upgrade the source system or default it before calling FromJSON

Example fix

// before
{
  "chaosMonkey": {
    "enabled": true,
    "grouping": "clusters"
  }
}
// after
{
  "chaosMonkey": {
    "enabled": true,
    "grouping": "cluster"
  }
}

func validateGrouping(cmCfg map[string]interface{}) error {
	enabled, _ := cmCfg["enabled"].(bool)
	if !enabled {
		return nil
	}
	g, ok := cmCfg["grouping"].(string)
	if !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("grouping is required when chaosMonkey is enabled")
	}
	switch g {
	case "app", "stack", "cluster":
		return nil
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid grouping %q: must be app, stack, or cluster", g)
	}
}

func isKnownGrouping(s string) bool {
	switch s {
	case "app", "stack", "cluster":
		return true
	}
	return false
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling FromJSON on JSON where attributes.chaosMonkey.enabled is true and attributes.chaosMonkey.grouping is absent, empty, misspelled (e.g. "clusters", "App" with capital), or otherwise not one of app|stack|cluster.

Common situations: Hand-edited Spinnaker app attribute JSON omitting "grouping" while enabling Chaos Monkey; case-sensitivity mistakes; UI/API versions that dropped or renamed the grouping field; typos in per-app overrides.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• 'attributes.chaosMonkey.enabled' field missing
• 'attributes.chaosMonkey' field missing
• attributes.chaosMonkey.meanTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays…
• attributes.chaosMonkey.minTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays missing
• 'attributes' field missing

AI-assisted analysis of Netflix/chaosmonkey@eaa28fb761 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f03c2d07ae8861e1. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at spinnaker/fromjson.go:142

	if *cm.Enabled && (*cm.MeanTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays <= 0) {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid attributes.chaosMonkey.meanTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays: %d", cm.MeanTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays)
	}

	grouping := chaosmonkey.Cluster

	switch cm.Grouping {
	case "app":
		grouping = chaosmonkey.App
	case "stack":
		grouping = chaosmonkey.Stack
	case "cluster":
		grouping = chaosmonkey.Cluster
	default:
		// If not enabled, the user may not have specified a grouping at all,
		// in which case we stick with the default
		if *cm.Enabled {
			return nil, errors.Errorf("Unknown grouping: %s", cm.Grouping)
		}
	}

	var meanTime int
	var minTime int

	if cm.MeanTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays != nil {
		meanTime = *cm.MeanTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays
	}

	if cm.MinTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays != nil {
		minTime = *cm.MinTimeBetweenKillsInWorkDays
	}

	// Exceptions must have a non-blank region field
	for _, exception := range cm.Exceptions {
		if exception.Account == "" {
			return nil, errors.New("missing account field in exception")

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