invalid autoscaling algorithm. Use --autoscaling_algorithm=(

Error message

invalid autoscaling algorithm. Use --autoscaling_algorithm=(NONE|THROUGHPUT_BASED)

What it means

The --autoscaling_algorithm flag accepts only the values NONE or THROUGHPUT_BASED, matching Dataflow's AutoscalingAlgorithm enum. getJobOptions rejects any other string with this error before submitting the job.

Source

Thrown at sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/dataflow/dataflow.go:297

		return nil, errors.New("no GCS staging location specified. Use --staging_location=gs://<bucket>/<path>")
	}

	checkSoftDeletePolicyEnabled(ctx, *stagingLocation, "staging_location")

	var jobLabels map[string]string
	if *labels != "" {
		if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(*labels), &jobLabels); err != nil {
			return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "error reading --label flag as JSON")
		}
	}

	if *cpuProfiling != "" {
		perf.EnableProfCaptureHook("gcs_profile_writer", *cpuProfiling)
	}

	if *autoscalingAlgorithm != "" {
		if *autoscalingAlgorithm != "NONE" && *autoscalingAlgorithm != "THROUGHPUT_BASED" {
			return nil, errors.New("invalid autoscaling algorithm. Use --autoscaling_algorithm=(NONE|THROUGHPUT_BASED)")
		}
	}

	if *flexRSGoal != "" {
		switch *flexRSGoal {
		case "FLEXRS_UNSPECIFIED", "FLEXRS_SPEED_OPTIMIZED", "FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED":
			// valid values
		default:
			return nil, errors.Errorf("invalid flex resource scheduling goal. Got %q; Use --flexrs_goal=(FLEXRS_UNSPECIFIED|FLEXRS_SPEED_OPTIMIZED|FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED)", *flexRSGoal)
		}
	}
	if !streaming && *transformMapping != "" {
		return nil, errors.New("provided transform_name_mapping for a batch pipeline, did you mean to construct a streaming pipeline?")
	}
	if !*update && *transformMapping != "" {
		return nil, errors.New("provided transform_name_mapping without setting the --update flag, so the pipeline would not be updated")
	}
	var updateTransformMapping map[string]string

View on GitHub (pinned to 12126d8942)

Solutions

Use exactly --autoscaling_algorithm=NONE or --autoscaling_algorithm=THROUGHPUT_BASED
Remove the flag entirely if you want Dataflow's default autoscaling behavior
Add a validation step in launch scripts to whitelist the two values

Example fix

// before
--autoscaling_algorithm=throughput_based
// after
--autoscaling_algorithm=THROUGHPUT_BASED

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if a := autoscalingAlgorithm; a != "" && a != "NONE" && a != "THROUGHPUT_BASED" {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid --autoscaling_algorithm %q", a)
}

Prevention

Only use the exact enum strings NONE and THROUGHPUT_BASED
Centralize the flag value in a typed constant/enum in your tooling

When it happens

Trigger: Setting --autoscaling_algorithm to a typo'd or wrong-cased value such as "none", "throughput_based", "BASIC", or "automatic".

Common situations: Porting configs from other runners whose autoscaling flags use different value sets; typos and lowercase values; generating the flag from a template with an unset placeholder.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d811377c018502d2. Report an issue: GitHub.