apache/beam · error

no Google Cloud project specified. Use --project=

Error message

no Google Cloud project specified. Use --project=<project>

What it means

The Dataflow runner's getJobOptions requires a Google Cloud project to create the job. It first tries gcpopts.GetProjectFromFlagOrEnvironment (the --project flag or GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT env var); when both are empty it returns this error before any API call is made.

Solutions

1. Pass --project=<my-gcp-project> to the pipeline
2. Export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=my-gcp-project in the environment
3. Verify the runner is really dataflow if you did not intend a GCP submission

Example fix

// before
go run pipeline.go --runner=dataflow --region=us-central1 --staging_location=gs://b/s
// after
go run pipeline.go --runner=dataflow --project=my-gcp-project --region=us-central1 --staging_location=gs://b/s
# or: export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=my-gcp-project

if os.Getenv("GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT") == "" && projectFlag == "" {
    return errors.New("set --project or GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT")
}

When it happens

Trigger: Executing a pipeline with runner=dataflow without --project=<project> and with the GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT environment variable unset.

Common situations: Local shells or CI containers where GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT is not exported; running the dataflow runner accidentally (misconfigured --runner) without GCP setup.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is required", "must be set", "missing required field": configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

• no Google Cloud region specified. Use --region=
• failed to open file
• invalid staging location
• no GCS staging location specified. Use…
• bad I

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7406886ec87cb019. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/go/pkg/beam/runners/dataflow/dataflow.go:272

	}

	return dataflowlib.Execute(ctx, model, opts, workerURL, modelURL, *endpoint, *jobopts.Async)
}

func isFlagPassed(name string) bool {
	found := false
	flag.Visit(func(f *flag.Flag) {
		if f.Name == name {
			found = true
		}
	})
	return found
}

func getJobOptions(ctx context.Context, streaming bool) (*dataflowlib.JobOptions, error) {
	project := gcpopts.GetProjectFromFlagOrEnvironment(ctx)
	if project == "" {
		return nil, errors.New("no Google Cloud project specified. Use --project=<project>")
	}
	region := gcpopts.GetRegion(ctx)
	if region == "" {
		return nil, errors.New("no Google Cloud region specified. Use --region=<region>. See https://cloud.google.com/dataflow/docs/concepts/regional-endpoints")
	}
	if *stagingLocation == "" {
		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")
		}
	}

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