invalid flex resource scheduling goal. Got %q; Use --flexrs_

Error message

invalid flex resource scheduling goal. Got %q; Use --flexrs_goal=(FLEXRS_UNSPECIFIED|FLEXRS_SPEED_OPTIMIZED|FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED)

What it means

getJobOptions validates the --flexrs_goal flag against the three allowed Dataflow FlexRS values: FLEXRS_UNSPECIFIED, FLEXRS_SPEED_OPTIMIZED, and FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED. Any other non-empty value is rejected with this error before the job is created. FlexRS only applies to batch jobs, so this is a strict enum check on user input.

Source

Thrown at sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/dataflow/dataflow.go:306

		}
	}

	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
	if *transformMapping != "" {
		if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(*transformMapping), &updateTransformMapping); err != nil {
			return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "error reading --transform_name_mapping flag as JSON")
		}
	}
	if *usePublicIPs == *noUsePublicIPs {
		useSet := isFlagPassed("use_public_ips")
		noUseSet := isFlagPassed("no_use_public_ips")
		// If use_public_ips was explicitly set but no_use_public_ips was not, use that value

View on GitHub (pinned to 12126d8942)

Solutions

Set --flexrs_goal to exactly one of FLEXRS_UNSPECIFIED, FLEXRS_SPEED_OPTIMIZED, or FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED (uppercase, full prefix)
Omit the --flexrs_goal flag if you do not need Flex Resource Scheduling
Fix case sensitivity: the comparison is exact, so FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED not cost_optimized
Verify the flag value in your pipeline launcher script or CI configuration

Example fix

// before
--flexrs_goal=cost_optimized
// after
--flexrs_goal=FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

valid := map[string]bool{"FLEXRS_UNSPECIFIED": true, "FLEXRS_SPEED_OPTIMIZED": true, "FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED": true}
if flexRSGoal != "" && !valid[flexRSGoal] {
    return fmt.Errorf("unsupported flexrs goal: %s", flexRSGoal)
}

Try / catch

if err := run(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "flexrs_goal") {
        log.Fatalf("use FLEXRS_UNSPECIFIED|FLEXRS_SPEED_OPTIMIZED|FLEXRS_COST_OPTIMIZED: %v", err)
    }
}

Prevention

Copy enum values verbatim from Dataflow docs (uppercase, FLEXRS_ prefix)
Centralize the goal value in one config constant
Omit the flag when FlexRS is not needed
Add a startup check that rejects unknown goal strings early

When it happens

Trigger: Starting a pipeline with --flexrs_goal set to anything other than the three accepted enum strings, e.g. lowercase values, 'SPEED_OPTIMIZED' without the FLEXRS_ prefix, or a typo.

Common situations: Users passing lowercase 'cost_optimized', abbreviating to 'FLEXRS_COST', reusing values from other GCP APIs (e.g. Compute Engine scheduling enums), or setting the flag in streaming configs where it was copied from a batch template.

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/0dec0bd19a649b30. Report an issue: GitHub.