ansible/ansible · error · AnsibleOptionsError

Pattern must be valid group name when using --graph

Error message

Pattern must be valid group name when using --graph

What it means

`inventory_graph` looks up `context.CLIARGS['pattern']` (positional args, defaulting to 'all') via `self._get_group(...)`. If the pattern does not resolve to an existing inventory group, it raises `AnsibleOptionsError` because `--graph` can only draw a tree rooted at a group.

Source

Thrown at lib/ansible/cli/inventory.py:262

        if group.name != 'all':
            for host in group.hosts:
                result.append(self._graph_name(host.name, depth))
                if context.CLIARGS['show_vars']:
                    result.extend(self._show_vars(self._get_host_variables(host), depth + 1))

        if context.CLIARGS['show_vars']:
            result.extend(self._show_vars(self._get_group_variables(group), depth))

        return result

    def inventory_graph(self):

        start_at = self._get_group(context.CLIARGS['pattern'])
        if start_at:
            return '\n'.join(self._graph_group(start_at))
        else:
            raise AnsibleOptionsError("Pattern must be valid group name when using --graph")

    def json_inventory(self, top):

        seen_groups = set()

        def format_group(group, available_hosts):
            results = {}
            results[group.name] = {}
            if group.name != 'all':
                results[group.name]['hosts'] = [h.name for h in group.hosts if h.name in available_hosts]
            results[group.name]['children'] = []
            for subgroup in group.child_groups:
                results[group.name]['children'].append(subgroup.name)
                if subgroup.name not in seen_groups:
                    results.update(format_group(subgroup, available_hosts))
                    seen_groups.add(subgroup.name)
            if context.CLIARGS['export']:
                results[group.name]['vars'] = self._get_group_variables(group)

View on GitHub (pinned to 9cf16a4aca)

Solutions

1. Run `ansible-inventory -i inv.yml --list` to see valid group names, then use one of them as the pattern.
2. Use a host name only with `--host`, never with `--graph`; for the full tree run `ansible-inventory --graph` with no pattern (defaults to 'all').
3. Confirm the inventory source actually defines the group (check `-i` argument and inventory plugin output).

Example fix

# before
ansible-inventory -i inv.yml --graph web1

# after
ansible-inventory -i inv.yml --graph webservers

from ansible.inventory.manager import InventoryManager
inv = InventoryManager(loader, sources='inv.yml')
assert 'webservers' in inv.groups, f'{pattern!r} is not a group in this inventory'

When it happens

Trigger: `ansible-inventory --graph -i inv.yml nonexistent_group`; passing a host name as the pattern (`--graph web1`); a pattern with wildcards, since `_get_group` does exact group-name matching.

Common situations: Assuming `--graph` accepts host names or patterns like `--host` does; group names that differ from what is defined (e.g. expecting `ungrouped` variants or dynamically-named groups); empty inventory where even 'all' has no group object.

Related errors

• The group named '%s' has a recursive dependency loop.
• You must pass a single valid host to --host parameter
• Could not find group %s in inventory
• %s is not a known host nor group
• %s is not a known group

AI-assisted analysis of ansible/ansible@9cf16a4aca (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7dd61392ea4e4299. Report an issue: GitHub.